The Gang's All Here
by delsquared
Summary: Wolf is released from Sargasso, cleared of all his crimes. However, facing reality, his rival, and his family that he betrayed is a completely different story. Fox begins to see his past rivalries in a whole new light. [Somewhat AU] (Wolf/Fox)
1. Introduction

**I**

 _Why am I still here...? Do I still want to be here...?_

A faint glow began to fill the darkness.

The embedded ceiling lights began to illuminate with a deep orange hue; with the lightbulbs being flood lights and the walls of the room being completely constructed out of metal, the room became bright as day within seconds into a slow scheduled brightening.

It did not affect Wolf O'Donnell at first, who was sleeping soundly on his side, letting off quiet breaths with interludes of soft nasal snores as little droplets of drool saturated the area on the pillow his mouth was.

Once the lights reached sixty percent intensity, the room became bright as an operating theater. Wolf began to turn to the other side for a short while before sleeping on his stomach, hands under the pillow with his head resting on the right hand. He retained the sleeping position for a couple more minutes before his eyelids became inadequate.

He peered his eyes open and closed it immediately at the reflex of bright lighting. He reached out his hand to the nightstand. He felt his eyepatch, moved to the alarm clock and grabbed his phone plugged in behind it. He pulled the covers over and looked at the phone. Nothing. Just a black screen with the time, indicating 6:57 am Central Corneria Time.

Wolf grumbled as he unlocked the phone and opened the internet, only to be denied access in the form of an "unknown error."

He went to the messages menu and attempted to text in the Star Wolf group chat, consisting only of Leon and Panther. He sent a neutral "Hello" and only to be spat in the face with the following:

 **{** **6:58 am Your message could not be sent due to an unspecified error. If this continues to occur, please contact our customer support. –Lylat Mobile}**

He let out a disappointed breath and went for a call to Panther, but still, it had the same message but now in an annoying robotic voice which made him hang up immediately after the first word was spoken.

He sat on the bed, the spikes of his hair leaning towards the left, his eyes only a quarter open and left arm numb with the feeling of needles stabbing at it.

He swung his left arm in a loop to stretch it and did the same to the other; once sensation resumed he walked barefoot on the freezing cold metal ground to the lightning panel only to dim the lights to a less harsh level. He retreated to the bed to gather up some more warmth in the cold confine, which was 59 degrees Fahrenheit as he glanced at the thermostat next to his bed.

As he sat, he looked around the room for the billionth time. It was a small square bedroom, 8 feet by 8 feet as he remembered, with the most elementary necessities, including a door that leads to a bare-bones bathroom.

He let out a gigantic yawn as he was greeted with blank and dull chrome metallic walls and floors once again. It didn't bother him until recently, being a man in a floating cage wandering aimlessly in space.

Two years before, the place was his personal heaven after a long day at his office or conducting his duties around the station. At the end of the normal day, he would jump onto the bed, slide into the covers and fall asleep within fifteen minutes. Afterwards, his time from getting into bed to fall asleep has gotten longer and occasionally nonexistent as his synapses worked overtime, causing him to lose interest in sleep.

After the Aparoid war, the base was sieged again by the CDF, capturing all three offenders, with Andrew being on the run. Panther and Leon were taken back to Corneria and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Wolf, on the other hand was sentenced to nine years of exile in the space station, supervised by several guards and security cameras.

Star Wolf did help Star Fox when the Aparoid turmoil gained severity along the way; as a result, they were credited with shorter sentence. Panther and Leon were released three months ago and have been doing well since then. They were still jailed for other reasons like tax evasion.

Wolf hasn't received any word on his prison sentence, and simply asking the guards would elicit no response, just a cold deceased look on their faces. Sometimes he would start a staring contest, and they would never blink.

He got out of bed and slipped into his sandals, wearing a white tank top that revealed a fair bit of his muscle definition and grey oversized sleep pants with the strings about six inches suspended from the front. After making his way to the bathroom at a sulking pace, he grabbed his comb and hair gel to fix his mohawk before brushing his teeth.

With a breath of fresh mint and strawberries, he returned to the room and donned his typical spiky mercenary outfit hanging behind the door to the hall, since it's the only _suitable_ thing he could wear in a setting like this. It was a symbol of authority and power to him, and it hugged him closely during the golden days. This time, that tightness only got weaker each passing week.

Before he could reach for the knob, he lunged over to the nightstand and grabbed his black eyepatch hanging over the edge and strapped it over the blurry eye, along with grabbing his phone and slotting it in his pocket.

At first, the halls were completely dark except for the dim guide lights every hundred feet. Once Wolf appeared into the open expanse, the entire place was flooded with synthetic lighting, revealing the hollow tube.

It was a step up from having groups of two or three sitting in corners, smoking a cigarette and rambling about all things Andross in which Wolf and they couldn't care less anymore. The result of that was Wolf constantly being involuntarily obliged to clean the halls but gave up several days later.

Across the hall was a large window showcasing the vast emptiness that Wolf was stationed in. It's painted with stars and some slow-moving rocks; in the distance, a bigger bright blue planet on the left and a smaller tan colored one on the right.

Just by looking at the blue one made him wince. It was a long time ago where he had a one-on-one with Fox and lost badly. He was overflowing with confidence with his new feature of his Wolfen where it morphs to a quadruped _._ It became another hull loss and another near-death experience.

He walked left at a snail's pace relative to the window. The next door on that same wall had a portrait of him in his mercenary outfit, smirking with his arms crossed. Under it was a nameplate. "WOLF O'DONNELL" with a subtitle "CEO - STAR WOLF. (The Overlord)"

It took him a while to look at the finer details, but then looked and walked away in defeat, with only his ego to blame.

The door on the other side led to the kitchen. A breath of fresh air with the metal shining in near perfect reflection with the lights above. It consisted of a long metallic counter wrapped along half of the walls in a "C" shape, and on the other side stood a large round table, capable of seating up to a party of twelve. Whenever Wolf spent time eating there, it was usually with Panther and Leon, drinking liquor and playing poker in the meantime.

In one of the cabinets were coffee grounds and filters.

Filter in, some water, coffee grounds in, and with a flick of a switch, nothing. A light was supposed to come on inside the switch. he frantically wiggled the wires, unplugged it and plugged it back in, and no avail. He surrendered,

He looked inside the refrigerator and the only thing in there was a liter sized jug of orange juice made from powder. It was a quarter full, and he averted eye contact with it.

In the golden days, it would be completely stacked with a spectrum of boxes and packaging of various sizes and shapes. In the freezer it would be a chockful of delicacies that would easily put some pounds on him. However, many days when he would take inventory, an unprecedented amount of food would go missing compared to previous logs.

He closed the refrigerator door, sighed slowly and turned his head to the two cardboard boxes to the right. He looked inside the top box, and it was the usual can of baked beans and a pre-cooked omelet.

Wolf shoved the box to the side, gritting his teeth and dug a claw into the adhesive, running it down the seam. He took a small bag of vanilla cookies on top, dumped the contents in his mouth like a garbage truck and called it breakfast. The other items he sifted through were ended up in the same fate as the two he shoved aside.

The door next to it leads to the recreation room, where he expected for it to be filled with a nice tune coming from the ceiling. One half of the room was filled with various weight training equipment and the other side is the more soft and colorful stuff. Now it was just a place for him to weigh himself on a regular basis.

The scale was an analog scale where the main dial from 0 to 20. There was a paper taped to the side, tabulating conversions between certain values in stones and pounds to kilograms.

He repulsed as the needle only went a bit over 11, which was the lowest he has been at lately.

Walking over to the other side, he fiddled around with the tabletop football and billiards table before sitting down at the couch facing the television in the corner. There's a microphone and a plastic toy guitar connected to it, both looking like they were just bought from the game store.

Wolf could only sit there and see himself having a good time with Leon and Panther, playing the day away to fill the melancholy silence. He looked back at the tables and saw them playing snooker there too, laughing and gossiping.

 _"Hey, Wolf! You want to join in?" Leon's voice echoed from behind._

 _"It's a fun game, Wolf. Come on, release some steam. Stop worrying about Fox," Panther invited before he bent down and aimed for the next shot. The cue bounced off the pink ball with a loud click, launching it into a corner hole at a tight angle._

 _"Ah! No fair!" Leon uttered in denial. "So you're what, 20 points ahead of me?"_

 _Panther smugly chuckled at Leon's denial as he readied another shot, aiming for another red one._

"Alright, I'll play!" He uttered, standing up tail wagging fiercely.

The two already faded from his view, and his tail dropped dead.

He gave it some thought as his heart beat against the sternum harder and faster.

At a quick pace, he walked out the same door that he entered earlier. He sighed and walked to the door that's next left of his office.

Wolf tried opening it; it clicked, but the knob did not give. The door had a picture frame of Leon smiling generically and the name tag "LEON POWALSKI" under it. The same went for the door on the other side, but with Panther's portrait of him smiling smugly, passionately smelling a rose.

He stood in front of his own office, staring at the door. His breath became controlled.

 _You can do this, Wolf. You can do this…_

Hand grasping the knob, he gently turned it and the door gave way to a dark and surprisingly warm office, which is about the same size of his bedroom. He closed the door behind him, bathing in black with the slight cosmic glow shining through the curtains. The ambience quieted down considerably compared to the hallway, with only one air vent on the ceiling producing soft white noise.

Wolf reached for the glowing light switch to his left and slid the knob it up all the way, causing the room to be gradually lit up with an orange hue and then white with a yellow tint.

Compared to the bedroom, his office was adorned with decorations, shelves and bookcases stuffed with books and paper. They walls were still metal, but the floor was a beige carpet.

On one wall, it contained stochastic assortment of picture frames in respect to position, shape and size; they all had the motif of Wolf's smile in it.

The first one he eyed was the three sitting together, confidently taking a shot of a clear liquid. He couldn't remember what it was, but it had a nice smell to it.

The next one was smiling Wolf sitting in front of a lavish cake with the burning candles spelling out "35."

 _Four years. It has been that long._

His eyes focused on the faded reflection of the face of a frail man on the glass of that photo, and then back to the picture. _They don't belong…_

A large panoramic photo was hung just below the ceiling, and it consisted of the original five standing in the corridor he was in. Pigma and Andrew on the outer, Leon and Panther in the inner, and Wolf in the center, standing in front of his office, in their neutral emotions and poses.

He urgently took the frame down, unscrewed the back and took out the picture, which was on a sheet of poster paper. He folded it in a way so that it excluded Andrew and Pigma when he hung it back.

Wolf walked over to the metal crate that was behind him. It had a sleek shine to it on the edges and a three by four array of buttons paneled on the top.

"PROPERTY OF STAR WOLF" was printed on the side diagonally, with what looked like black spray paint; under that it had "ANDROSS" written, but it was barely legible. On the bottom it had all five original member's names on it. Pigma's wasn't there in any trace, and Wolf obtained the chrome spray paint from a cabinet behind him and sprayed over Andrew's name, coating it over more than enough times.

On the back of the door hung a vertical rectangular frame, containing the Star Wolf contract written when the group was formed. He kept a mental image of it before browsing the other memorabilia that were scattered around the room, most of them being pictures.

One of the pictures on the writing desk was him standing on the snowcapped Hawk Mountain, with a summit elevation of ten thousand feet. He was 16 at the time, arms raised and beaming with the untainted blue sky behind him.

He looked at the next one; his pupils doubled in size.

Two wolves, both similar in body and facial structure, stood next close to each other, arms extending to each other's shoulder. Both had a smile on them, more so on the taller one with the violet eyes.

The shorter one is his son Jonathan, or as Wolf loves to call him "Wolfy." He was about a head shorter than Wolf at the time.

The only noticeable difference were his eyes that are bright yellow in color. Wolf has his white puff of chest hair and a light grey abdomen on his fur, whilst his son has completely white fur on his abdomen that gradients to a light grey on the limbs and side.

The picture next to that was Wolf and him sitting on a bench, with Wolf playing his guitar and the two looking at each other.

 _"Wow, you sound so good! Do it again!" his son clapped as the campfire crackled and burned brighter._

It has been close to five years that Wolf has left his son without any closure, and he would realize that one day…

 _"You're going back to work AGAIN?"_

…he will meet him again, not knowing what or how he would be.

 _"Yup! Hopefully I'll come back soon to see your delicate face again. Promise!" Wolf climbed onto the Wolfen parked on the side. His son gave an affirmative smile and a wink as a reply._

 _As his Wolfen's main engines roared to life, his son gave him a big handwave, in which Wolf waved back jauntily._

Anything outcome was possible to manifest into Wolf's thoughts as he stood, eyes completely frozen.

 _"…You… You never told me about this, did you?" A deeper, yet familiar voice echoed in his head._

He focused on the picture as he remembered the texture of his fur and how it felt when he constantly ruffled his hair, and the melodic whine of his voice.

 _"…Get your filthy hands off me!"_

All Wolf had was the urge to reach his arms into the picture and pulling him into his arms, smiling, laughing, and being a bit younger, but there's always the inevitable feeling of being stabbed right in the heart, knife twisting and turning.

 _"…You're not my father, Wolf."_

Wolf quickly looked at the picture again. The short wolf disappeared.

He immediately put it face down and looked away for five second, sealing his eyes and gritting his teeth. He then slowly lifted back up, with the picture being normal.

He turned his head to the metal box. Slowly walking over, trembling and kneeling, he pressed the buttons on the keypad.

 _0-8-3-0_

The box gave a loud hum and a satisfying click, causing the top of the case pop slightly open.

Lifting the cover, right on top was a leather guitar case and buried below it was a present wrapped in decorative red and green paper, with a white cross tie around it. A card was attached where the bow was.

The present had a fair bit of weight to it as he removed it from the box. He flipped open the card to reveal a note written in elegant cursive.

 **"Dear Wolfy, Happy 17th birthday from the team! Your dad misses you a lot and dreams about you practically every day! Hehe. We wish you all the best! Here is a present from us!"**

Below were signatures from the three, with Wolf's being the largest; next to Panther's signature lived a dedicated doodle of a rose in red ink.

He put it back into the case immediately and closed it. He landed his forehead right on the edge of the box, trying to shove away what he had experienced within the past thirty minutes.

Thereafter, Wolf went for the contract that was hanging behind the door. He took it out from the frame and gave it a good glance, skimming through the clauses that he wrote in print. The lines slanted down as the text advanced to the right.

On the bottom were five signatures, but he had something different in mind rather than scratching the two obvious ones out.

He held the yellowed paper with two hands on the top.

As he was about to make the decision, a sound of a guitar being strummed emanated from the immediate vicinity. It's a familiar tone that he hasn't heard in a long time.

He pulled out his phone and was greeted with this plastered on the black lock screen:

 **{1 New E-mail}**

There was resonant knocking in the distance.

"O'Donnell!" A guard shouted outside, voice echoing from one end of the hall to the next, and then it transitioned to steady footsteps in crescendo.

A shot of cold traversed from Wolf's head to his feet.

 **{8:39 am: From: pepper Subject: IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING…}**

 _Thank you._

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

 **I have edited this section, about 3 months after I posted this story.**

\- This is my first fic involving the Star Fox universe, and I haven't written a fanfiction in a long while. I did have another account where I wrote some junk during 8th grade, did not want to revisit that again.

\- Please bear with me that my knowledge of the Star Fox lore is lackluster, so please don't freak out if you see something that doesn't mesh well with the lore. The characters are mainly the foundation.

\- English isn't my first language. I moved to the US when I was like 7. Had some trouble learning English during elementary school but gradually became much better. Thankfully, that was my critical period of learning English, so it was retained pretty well.

Story Stuff

\- The purpose of this chapter is to paint the picture and immediately give you the conflict Wolf has to deal with. I know some of you like to have it revealed slowly, but by the time I am typing this new author's note, which is about 3 months later, I can't really change much.

\- **This story will have OCs.** I am aware some folks don't like that. I will keep OCs to a minimum the best I can. The most OC-heavy parts of the story are just interactions with the main characters.

\- The WIP title of the story was _Chains_ , inspired by the song _The Chain_ by Fleetwood Mac, which tells the conflict between the band members that their love is bound by this chain and it must not be broken.

\- A Stone is 14 pounds.

\- If I realize in the future that the timeline needs changing, I will make note of that because it may change to keep age consistency.


	2. Beyond the Wall

**Author's Note**

I trimmed this chapter a little to get rid of some unnecessary filler.

* * *

II

"This the place?" A perky voice echoed throughout the space.

"Yeah," a buttery smooth yet familiar voice responded.

Waving their hands in front of them, one eventually hit a string and pulled on it, lighting an orange incandescent bulb which revealed two young canines, a brown coyote and a wolf, with the latter being a tad taller and bigger in frame. The wolf ran his hand over his hair, and stuck together some more spikes, which held together better down here.

The light revealed the concrete dwelling, inhabited by crates, dust bunnies, spider webs, and a single computer in the empty spot, hugged along the wall.

It's a beige box, standing about two feet tall and a chunky screen made of the same material with a glass curvy screen, all set on a nicely textured and glossy cubic pine wood construct.

With a press of a button on the beige box, the glass curvy screen came to life in a form of a blinking line on the top left before spawning a bunch of text.

 **RAM OK**

 **Copyright © Corneria Software, CUDCS 1984. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly forbidden.**

 **Created and tested in collaboration with Corneria University Department of Computer Science.**

 **Welcome to the command line. To boot to OS, pass the command COS4.**

 **TIME: 00:00:00 1/1/1970 THURSDAY**

 **To set the time, pass the command TIME [DDMMYYYYhhmmss]**

 **READY**

The coyote pulled out his phone and a blast of light from the screen beamed onto his face. "It's a quarter to eight," he recited as he put it away in his gym shorts.

"Oooo…" the wolf marveled, "four-digit years, now we're talkin'!"

"What do we do now?" The coyote's face inched closer to the computer. The wolf typed the COS4 command. The screen stood still before erasing everything that was there. The fan noises increased in volume, muffling the music playing from upstairs to the point that the thumps could be only heard.

"We are not playing with that low-level stuff," The wolf sternly stated.

"But haven't we already taken that comp sci class?"

"Yeah, but c'mon…" The wolf turned around, facing the coyote, "we're too _lazy_ , and it gets too _messy…_ "

A hollow rectangle appeared in the center, and every few seconds, a part of it on the left became filled in fragmented solid vertical rectangles.

The wolf examined both of his hands, especially the tips of the fingers and the coyote slightly bopped his head and tapped his feet to the beat coming from the floor above.

The filled rectangle disappeared, dropping a grey screen like a curtain and then plastering a small white box with a monochrome rasterized image of Wolf and a black arrow on the corner. Wolf's ears perked once a beep came from the tower.

"Wow, Wolf looks a mess," The coyote observed the tiny image of him.

"Oh… _Yeah_ ," The wolf squinted his eyes until he was able to resolve the tiny image. "He looks kind of messed up… Looked like he smoked a bowl. Not sure what's goin' on."

As expected, the only user available was his father. Upon clicking, the box expanded, and four squares appeared. "Enter PIN," it said. The melodies of the song coming from upstairs became audible again.

Out of the many numbers that the wolf's brain generated, the first came to mind was 1210. With a few clacking sounds and a pound on the enter key, "bah!" he cried out as a failure message displayed.

 **"** **4 attempts remaining"**

"What happens if we run out of attempts?" The coyote asked.

"I haven't a clue. The house blows up? I don't know." The wolf rested his elbow on the desk, resting the bottom of his chin on his index finger. A shiver ran down his back when he thought about it. His eyes traced back and forth slowly. Immediately he quickly keyed in 1102 and jabbed the enter key. The four dots disappeared, and the black arrow turned into an hourglass before the white box wiped away entirely.

The wolf quickly clapped, "Got it!" he blurted. He looked back, all happy, seeing the coyote swaying back and forth, mumbling.

 _"…_ _gonna be a bright… bright… sunshiny day…"_ was what he heard from him. His eyes were not even focused towards him, but rather to the ceiling. He focused his ears and confirmed that the things that he mumbled match the music that was playing.

"Hey," he snapped two times, "over here." It elicited no response.

 _I wonder if I can really pull this off accurately…_ The wolf, discreetly turned his seat towards the Coyote, lunged at him and loudly snarled with his ears folded back.

The coyote let out his whining and yipping noises as he stumbled a yard back, constantly fighting against his balance and his blue eyes dilating to its greatest extent.

The exhibition of wolf's fangs slowly turned into innocent squeaky laughter.

"Wow, Jon… You're getting better at it," the coyote, softly clapping his hands.

"Yeah, but if it were my dad, you would go ' _splat!_ '" he claps, "right onto the back wall. _"_

"Heh," the coyote walked over, with his breathing still quite audible.

"Speaking of sunshine, how's the weather?"

"Right now…" He took out his phone. "Corneria City is 30. The high is 34." Jon's smile quickly died.

"Ugggh…" Jon he threw his left hand onto his forehead. "Dew point…?" He asked, with a rough and deep tone.

"23 degrees," he simply read off, without knowing what it meant.

He exhaled with a growl. "Dammit! Another triple digit day! Errrgh!" He threw a fist in the air as the desktop finished loading on the screen. A beep sounded form the computer, saying "network connected."

"Ne—Network?" Jon felt a series of chills cascaded down his body, knowing that somewhere in the universe, an alarm might have gone off. "Eh." He shrugged and opened the hard drive folder. Immediately, there was one text file named "DiePigma." He eyed for a second, thinking it might be about the guy who killed James, but once opened, he was thrown off, since apparently, he had a blurry alliance with Wolf, but the short announcement rectified that.

The coyote moved his face closer to the flickering screen.

 **"** **1 ALW February 20, Wednesday**

 **To be announced the next day at 10 am.**

 **We hereby announce the dismissal of Pigma Dengar. The team cannot stand to his constant egomania and self-centrism any longer. The fact that the murder of James McCloud may be his doing, and by proxy, ours, the constant conceited reiteration has become preposterous to the point that it began to taint our good name.**

 **A protocol has been issued that if the swine is detected within a 50-mile radius, we will attempt to execute him, effective immediately after this broadcast.**

 **Sincerely, Lord O'Donnell"**

"Hmmm…" Jon nodded slowly, "a wise thing to do… g'job, dad."

"Lord… _Lord_ O'Donnell… You should call him that!" The coyote chuckled.

"Uh… yeah, no…" he looked to the coyote, ears all flattened to the side, with a disgusted face and shaking his head slowly.

"What if Wolf sees that you have accessed his secret files?"

"Well..." Jon tapped under his snout. "The worst that could happen is that…" he brandished his claws, which were recently trimmed, and made a swiping motion, putting on a maniacal grin. "…He scoops our little organs out and sell them!"

"No way, man…" The coyote had his arms crossed.

"I don't know, Nate." Jon shrugged, "he'd probably boot us out of the house, then again we've the apartment."

Jonathan closed out of the letter and went for the folder called "games," and there were three files with incredibly vague names.

"CARDS" was a simple game of Hold 'em Poker, which was something the two would play in their apartments with three other classmates when they choose not to go to the bar, usually betting spare change while they drank homemade sangria, which later caused someone to bet their entire debit card, which contained three dollars.

The last one was "FIGHTER." The two looked at each other, confused before pressing enter. Immediately, a wireframe figure resembling a spacecraft appeared, and the game began without any warning.

"Uhh… I am this Arwing-looking thing flying in voxel-land with Platonic solids passing by…" he frantically looked at the keyboard, pressing random keys after the W, S, A and D did not work, and neither did the arrow keys. "Great game when it don't give ya any instruction…"

Once he found the buttons to move, Jon became even more bamboozled as it jerked about. With each button press to move, it took a second to register and the spacecraft moved in discrete increments on the screen. Holding down the button did nothing but moved the thing one step.

"Wow looks like I'm watching someone's slideshow presentation," the Coyote reviewed, chuckling subtly.

 _He's right._ He tried to fight the controls rather than fighting the octahedrons shooting at him. The graphics shook about before freezing; with a long beep coming from the system, the word "GAME OVER" appeared in large print.

"GG! One hit death!" Jon placed his hands on his thigh and laughed.

"I mean it's pretty representative to real life… I'd give 'em that."

"Yes, especially the part where you jerk and lag around when moving," he gave it some more thought. "My Wolfen II would be done for if it did that."

"Ey, if that thing you controlled were to be an Arwing, you just let Star Fox die… mission complete!"

Jon squinted his eyes, quietly snorting, and slowly rotated his head back to Nathan, with an inconspicuous smile. "Shuuuut up."

The coyote began to chuckle, and then his mouth broke and the sound pierced through the room with his crackling laughter.

"I wonder… if your dad… gets off to—" The coyote was bending down and wheezing as he squeezed out the last of his laughs and some words.

"Stop. Just… stop."

It took about several minutes for Nathan to regain self-control and let the guitar riff fill in the silence. In the meantime, Jon quit the game and went back to the grey desktop. There's one folder called 'chatlog.'

Opening it revealed a matrix of text files that were clearly titled. The first one that caught his eye was "WHO IS STEALING OUR FOOD?" Upon opening, another window appeared with white background with black bold text.

"Whoa, calm down dad…" Jon whispered.

 **Wolf: after the fifth inventory check this week I have noticed that we are down 10 cans of beer in 2 days and someone took all the frozen pizza puffs even though we haven't eaten any. Could Andrew or one of his apes be one of those conniving thieves? I need your investigative minds, thanks.**

 **Leon: No more pizza puffs? I thought we were having them tonight!**

 **Panther: it's a mortal sin to steal our beloved pizza puffs, they should be executed.**

 **Panther: Ok I got the financial report ready for the week.**

 **Wolf: bring them to me after lunch.**

 **Leon: ($30) in inventory**

 **Panther: RIP**

"I want some pizza," Nathan whispered.

"I am pretty sure that's your catchphrase for the ten years I have known you."

A file called "Song recommendations" caught their attention.

 **Wolf: I need a good song to work out to. Any of you have suggestions**

 **Panther: 'Landslide' for the eye workout**

 **Leon: that or country roads**

 **Wolf: My eyes are getting quite a workout now…**

 **Leon: youre welcome**

A hit of nostalgia struck a chord in Jon's heart. "That's adorable…"

That chord sounded again from upstairs and it repeated three times.

 _Wait… that's the…_

"Oh shit abort abort abort abort!" Jon jumped out of the chair and quickly navigated the mouse to the button where it shuts down the computer. Nathan gave Jon the three locks and the keys before they turned off the light and headed upstairs to the closet. He closed the door and secured the locks in a random order and obscuring it with a trench coat, hoping that when Wolf comes home he won't notice they entered the 'dungeon.'

"You go to my room; I'll handle the company." He pointed to Nathan. With a nod, he opened the door to the main hallway and quickly made his way up, which Jon could hear right above him. He pulled and pushed the closed door several times before walking up to the main door, where several knocks in rapid succession began. "Who is it?" Jon hollered as he grabbed the chrome lever.

"Panther Caroso…" A deep yet smooth voice came from the other side. He immediately opened the door and found him leaning on the door frame with a smile and hands in his pockets. He was sporting a black tee with a graphic of white light diffracting through a prism, khaki cargo shorts and navy flip-flops.

"Morning Panther. Come on in." Jon, with one sweep of his foot, moved all the shoes to one side.

"Good morning, Jonathan." Panther stepped in and took off his shoes on the doormat and switched to the banana colored sandals he usually uses in the O'Donnell house.

"Aren't you a bit cold in this weather outside?" Jon closed the door and walked along with Panther to the living room.

"Well, 58 degrees is already wonderful… except for the fog." Panther pulled out his phone and looked at it for a second. "Yup, heat warning's already in effect for Corneria City." He put the phone away. "96 degrees with a 106-degree heat index."

"Yeesh…" Considering Panther's fur is completely black, Jon had no other feeling than pity for him.

"What took you so long to answer the door?" Panther turned to look at Jon's vibrant yellow eyes.

 _Yikes! I gotta…_

"I was sleeping."

"Well, fair enough. My apologies." The both sat on the beige leather sofa opposite of each other, separated by a wooden coffee table, while a soft rock track played from the surround sound.

"You're fine."

"Why thank you," he put on a smug grin with his tail curled up on the sofa.

 _Hmm… something's missing from him… His hand is empty._

"So do you want anything to eat? drink?"

"Do you have some tea?"

Jon nods. "What kind?"

"Hmmm… Earl grey."

"Alright, wait a sec." Jon got up and went to the kitchen, which was behind Panther. He watched him put some water from the tap, making note of his attire which consisted of a white tank top and black basketball shorts. Jon plugged in the water boiler, walked back and sat in his original place. "What made you decide to stop here?"

"I spent three days vacationing in the south, and I am just stopping by for a moment here before heading back to Corneria City."

"How was it?"

"Absolutely therapeutic," his mouth grew wider and exhaled before laying on the sofa, staring upwards at the ceiling of made of warm lacquered wood planks with wooden beams interlaced under it. "You reserve one of those babies for sunset. Set sail, put on some rock ballads and pour yourself some fine wine. It's ohhhh…" he gave a deep sigh, "…so relaxing."

"Couldn't you do that in Corneria City though? On the lake? Or even here?"

"No way. You don't get that special feeling of… ecstasy… Also, the sailboats over there are cheaper to rent."

"I'll keep that in mind." A soft and steady beep came from the kitchen; Jon walked over and poured the boiling water into a mug. In the cabinet, he grabbed a tea bag from a red box and soaked it in the mug until the water became a rich mahogany under the ambient light. He brought it over to Panther as he reached over the sofa.

"Ah, thank you prince." Panther sat up and placed the steaming tea on the old wrinkly newspaper.

 _Almost forgot about that…_ "Sure…"

Loud, bright laughter was coming from upstairs, interrupting the rock music being played. _He does that every time…_

"Must be your coyote friend, yes?"

"Yeah…" Jon sighed as he looked towards the stairwell, with the hysterical laughter hammering at his head.

He took a deep breath and tried snarling again, but this time it was much louder, completely terminating the laughter. Panther immediately fixed his eyes on Jon. "Ow… that kinda hurt…" he rubbed his jaw.

"Sorry!" the coyote's voice echoed.

"Say… for a second there I really thought it was Wolf," Panther took a sip of the tea and slowly put it down. A sincere smile came to Jon.

"Where is Leon?"

"Prison," said Panther, acting all surprised.

"Wait… aren't you two _out_ of prison?"

"Ha ha. It really confused me at first but looking at his personality it all made sense."

"What is it?"

"He's working for the police. He loves the interrogation position."

"Hmm… From being a top criminal to being someone who frames criminals…" Jon jogged his mind.

"Told you," Panther took a sip of his tea and quickly swallowed it and put the mug down on the hard surface of the table. "About Star Wolf…" he lifted his index finger and shook that hand, and his voice became a tad louder than usual.

Jon directed his attention to Panther.

"It's something we have been thinking really hard on," Panther leaned forwards, elbows resting on his thoughts and clasping his hands. "Leon and I constantly text each other about it." He gave a sigh. "It's something that's in the back of our heads for a while."

"I see."

Panther grabbed his phone, which seemed to be a newer model of Jon's. "Leon became super bothered since, you know, he's a cop. Technically as of right now Star Wolf is still alive, so he's got that title to deal with."

"So you're gonna-?"

"Most likely. I mean it was fun while it lasted. Maybe not for your daddy…"

"Wait… what's wrong with him?"

"He's been a _bad_ boy…"

Jon couldn't help but discreetly laugh.

A soft chime sounded from the tall wooden clock near the entrance of the kitchen. The bell struck nine times as the golden pendulum swayed in a hypnotic motion.

Panther resumed, smirking as well, "he's quite the turbulent person on the crew…" He took a large swig of the tea. "Have you heard your father _cry_?"

"Uh… No…? I think he's very good at _hiding_ things."

"We thought so too. It was eight in the morning we were supposed to report to his office. He wasn't there. Leon and I went to his bedroom and that's when I heard him wail. The door was open, and it was confirmed."

"What did you do then?"

"I went in and _tried_ to wake him." Panther crossed his arms.

"Oh dear… Was it a success?"

Panther chuckled. "He did what you've done to quiet your friend."

"Glad he didn't tear into you…" Jon sighed and laid on the sofa, propping his head on a pillow. "What was it about?"

"He never told us to this day. After we checked in with him he just pretended like nothing ever happened, and that's for _every_ time." Panther slowly nodded as he finished the last of his tea. "He's out of jail now."

Jon's face suddenly cocked towards the panther and froze. He jumped to a seated pose. "Really!?"

Panther closed his eyes and nodded once more. "Got an e-mail of the headlines this morning. You should have gotten one too."

"Oh… I usually never check my inbox."

"You should. It's a good habit, especially when you are a working man like me." _Thanks…?_

"Working?"

"I have a job at ten-thirty at that large Corneria Botanical Shop. I do the sweet talking and finances there. It sure beats flying around doing nothing sometimes."

Jon grabbed his phone and went to his inbox, and to his surprise, it was there after it refreshed. The previous song faded and then a melody of old synthesizer sounds broadcasted through the surround sound.

"Texting or calling him won't work. He has disabled his phone prior to leaving." Jon felt himself shaking in anger.

"I don't have him as my contact in the first place!" He pulled out his phone. "I got this phone when I was... fifteen! A year after he left me."

"Ouch." Panther looked at his phone. "Error, number is not in service. Corneria Telecom."

"How are you going to contact him?"

"Well, I will just wait and see. I'd say you probably do the same too." Panther's eyes became glued to his phone. "Say, tell you what, since you boys are heading into the city for college, I'll text you his address."

Soon, a guitar riff sounded from Jon's phone.

"Oh no, no no undo send!" Panther rapidly tapped his phone.

 **"** **70 Godley st, room 204. –Panther xoxo"** was the message.

"Ignore the signature…" Panther tilted his pupils up towards Jon and still retained some look of disbelief. His voice had a growl underlying it. "I don't know, Jonathan… I feel like… Wolf… He can't go on thinking nothing's wrong…"

Jon sat, taking all those valid, barbed words in, hands fidgeting with the fur on the underside of his muzzle, mind working overtime, trying not to see an eventual end of his father.

"Right, I have to get going. Got another 600 or so miles to cover before the city…" Panther put his phone away in the lower side pocket of his shorts and stood. He walked over to the amber wooden door, tail wagging side to side, changed his shoes back. Jon stood and walked over to the end of the staircase.

"If you see my dad, text me."

"Yes, do the same to me if you spot him." Panther opened the door. "See you around and take care, Prince O'Donnell!" Panther waved as he stepped onto the wooden deck. Jonathan waved back as he walked onto the gravel cul-de-sac and followed its path to the forest which is the pathway out of the place. The soothing sounds of the trees and the swoosh of the ocean ensued.

Nathan's cottage was more distinguishable than when Panther entered. It has identical structure and characteristics as the O'Donnell cottage—a cozy mid-sized suburban family home with rounded stone masonry on the ground floor and pine wood sidings on the second floor with a log cabin feel on the interior. The house was the one good thing that came out of Wolf's decisions, that and Wolf bringing back his Wolfen II.

"Nathan!"

"What!?"

"Get your ass down here!"

With a few stomps becoming louder, he appeared behind him, tail wagging. "What's up, prince?"

Jonathan let out a loud growl and pointed to the door. "Go get changed. We are goin' to the city."

Nathan dashed out of the house and with one push of the door, it slammed shut. Jon walked barefoot up the carpeted stairs and into the warm wood-decorated room on the right, which was nearly empty except for some stacks of papers on the writing desk and next to it a bookcase consisting of a colorful lineup of academic texts and novels on the bottom and CDs and vinyl LPs on top.

He took off his tank top to reveal a sea of white fur on his front side and about twenty strands of it drifting to the ground. He walked to the bathroom on the other side of the hall to check in the mirror for any lint tainting the glossiness on his belly and sort upper arms.

Back in the bedroom, he picked out a white polo shirt for the impending mugginess.

He dropped his basketball shorts and put on fresh grey cargo shorts that hugged him tighter more than he could imagine. It was always one of the two possibilities: weight gain, or the laundry shrinking it, giving it a tighter initial fit. He threw the old clothes and his phone charger in the almost-full luggage, zipped it up and set it on the ground.

Jon then transformed the bed from an unsightly mess of balled-up linens to a clean, flat and welcoming ocean blue covers with a pattern anchors and sailboats drawn as white silhouettes. He smacked the covers and witnessed about several strands of fur, mostly white and some grey floated upwards and settled somewhere close from the initial impact. Each strand of fur was about an inch long.

In the bathroom, he gave his hairdo a closer examination, refining the spikes and the curves each of them had. Many of his friends call his hair the "Pineapple sprout." It is a variant of his father's hairstyle where the spikes on the back of the head are the same, but in the front, they are curved down, and in the middle is the said "sprout." Nathan calls it the "rock star." He sprayed some deodorant on his armpits before leaving the bathroom for good.

Jon grabbed the keyring hung on the doorframe, tugged the suitcase out of the bedroom and closed the door before locking it. It hung a large picture frame of him on the bridge sidewalk, dressed in a brown trench coat with formal attire underneath and putting on a fedora. The white button on the bottom of the decorative wooden frame, when pressed, animated the picture of him tipping the fedora. In the background, other people walked by and were dressed weirdly with buckets of candy.

On his phone, he opened an app that let him request a ride to the train station in Whitewood, the nearest city from the cottage, which is about 600 miles northwest of Corneria City.

With the suitcase in hand, he walked to the staircase but paused. He made a detour to the closed room on the left of the staircase. The door didn't have anything on it, and the doorknob was stiff as always. Jon let out a sigh before slowly walking downstairs to do some last-minute cleanup. He went out the back door to turn two valves before emptying the plumbing. Three pounds sounded on the door that felt like hammers striking his ear. Jon stumbled over to the door.

Nathan stood next to his luggage, dressed in an orange tee, white shorts, leather flip-flops and white baseball cap. His fur was well groomed compared to Jon's, giving it an orange shine under the sunlight.

"Ready to go?" A childish smile came upon Nathan.

"Yeah… if ya wanna walk there…" Jon leaned against the door, looking up the address of his old place.

"So I heard your pa's outta the slammer."

Jon bit his lip and nodded slowly. "I just…" He put his phone away.

"What?"

"If he's had nightmares like Panther said and likes to hide things…" Jon look towards the top and exhaled. "Who's gonna tell him when it's too late?" He shook his head before bending down to grab his slip-on sandals and wearing them.

"That's true…" Nathan looked to his suitcase. "So you planning on going to his ol' crib?"

"It's a mandate to me," Jon felt his heart beginning to pick up the pace. "Dunno if he's even going to be there or not…" He reached for the light switches behind him and in one press, the living room became shrouded in darkness.

A pair of headlights shone from the forest. "It's here," Jon closed and locked the door, giving it a push and tug. A large, hovering minivan pulled up to the front deck of the cottage before the trunk door slowly opened.

"We going there immediately?" The coyote asked as he placed his luggage in the trunk.

"Nah. I gotta pay for my obtuse speeding citation first," Jon placed his luggage right next to Nathan's, making a perfect fit relative to the width of the trunk. "So, you ready for the third year?"

"Yes… I have orgo 2 this time."

"Jeez. Remind me to buy you a barrel of lube for that."

* * *

 **Ending Note**

\- You can see there are 2 OCs here, and these are the ONLY two OCs present in the story, and this chapter will be the ONLY OC-heavy chapter besides interactions with main characters.

\- The beginning of the story with the computer commands is paying homage to GTA Vice City.

\- You will find out the purpose of the 4 digit years later.

\- The Dew Point is the temperature at which water vapor condenses, it is proportional to the water's vapor pressure. A higher dew point means there's more moisture in the air. This is very different than relative humidity. Relative humidity is RELATIVE to the current temperature. So 90% RH at 30°C is absolutely humid whilst 90%RH at -5°C is still considered dry.

\- Since warm-blooded characters sweat to cool off because evaporating sweat takes heat from the body, it is done most efficiently if the surrounding air is dry. However, hotter air is able to "hold" more moisture, so if it's particularly humid, evaporative cooling isn't really ideal, so you will feel hotter, that's what the Heat Index is.

\- When talking about temperature, Panther used degrees Fahrenheit, and you will find out more about mensuration later.

\- Corneria uses the standard Gregorian Calendar we use. Too lazy and un-learned to make a new calendar system; this applies to the other planets.

\- The song Nathan sang is _I Can See Clearly Now_ by Johnny Nash. Other two songs mentioned are _Landslide_ by Fleetwood Mac and _Take me Home, Country Roads_ by John Denver. I am using real life songs because they are a huge part of my life, but I will have to alter the artist names. Also I am way to uninspired to make up songs and artists.

\- Yes, the two OCs are college aged. Be warned, their dialogue will be cheesy and dirty, but not too dirty.


	3. Cold as Ice

**Author's Note**

I am just gonna put this here...

* * *

III

 _Oh! How I missed you, my darling!_

 _You haven't changed a bit!_

 _It's so great to see you again!_

Wolf ran up the stairs, skipping every other step, with a paper bag in one hand containing all his clothes and his tail wagging furiously. A grin was pasted on his face as he leaned forward onto the cockpit window. A stout guard followed up behind him, watching him wiping the cockpit windshield with the fur on his hands.

The guard cleared his throat and raised one of his arms where the hand was dangling his keyring, shaking it up and down. Wolf turned around, and with one rapid motion of his arm, he swiped the ring from the guard.

Wolf repeatedly dug his claw into the green button on the white fob as if he was playing a game. A sudden and loud pneumatic hissing noise came from it, causing Wolf's ears to fold back in a split second, before the cockpit doors propped open by itself. He chucked the bag in front of the seat.

"Before you get in…" The guard's rough tone announced. Wolf turned around with a beamy smile. "You do understand airspace restrictions, yes?" Wolf nodded, with most of the words going through one ear and out the other. "You are only allowed to fly directly to Corneria. Your pilot's license will be revoked again if we detect you in other planets."

"Yes, I understand," Wolf rightfully pledged. _Jeez, stop talking…_

"Okay, have a safe return. I will notify other forces to treat your Wolfen as a friendly." The guard turned away and walked down the stairs. Wolf jumped onto the seat and sank into hit, exhaling, propping his feet up onto the dashboard, absorbing the elegant silence.

 _Do I really want to go back…?_

The seat, when reclined, felt quite familiar to something else that's too comfortable. He began to compulsively yawn, sometimes so loud that it echoed throughout the garage, simulating a concert hall. His eyes became easier to drift and close.

He sat up, trying to debate whether to ask for some advice or get yelled at again. "Guards!" He hollered, and the German shepherd guard who just made it to the bottom of the stairs traversed up again.

"Yes, Mister O'Donnell?" He stood firmly, feet tucked together.

"A shot in the dark, but are there any coffee shops that you would recommend?"

"Coffee shops…" The Shepard tapped his right foot and looked above. "Ack! It's on the tip of my tongue."

"Don't worry. Take your time."

The guard brought down his comm. "Hey Bill, what is that coffee shop on Fichina called? That one where we spent two hours talking 'bout how my mobile carrier tried to jack my money?"

Dead silence.

"Galaxia Coffee? It's a branch. Okay then." The guard hung up the phone and placed it in his side pocket.

"It's a Galaxia Coffee shop," the said shop is one of those incredibly popular brands that usually appear every three blocks in average city, commonly catered to young adults and teenagers to help with their cramming sessions.

"I don't mind. I just want _any_ kind of coffee. Anything but the piss I drank here."

"Okay. I will uhm…" He grabbed a sticky note and pen from the inside pocket of his uniform and quickly scribbled the address on there. "Here you go." The guard handed him a pink slip and Wolf took a second to glance at it before sticking next to the main screen on his dashboard.

"Thank you, sir." Wolf stuffed the fob into the appropriately shaped hole on the dashboard, and with a click, a light whirr began to fill the ambience, causing Wolf to shake in anticipation.

The dashboard is a mishmash of digital displays and analogue gauges, but the former is put the use more. The lightshow of every display flickering coming to life put him in a state of euphoria, having never seen it for years.

The main screen, a green and black raster display, showed the ships' status in numbers, such as speed, altitude, or any applicable metric. The most important thing that is indicated is the green OK at the bottom left, which quantitatively describes the hull health.

Wolf gave the screen a tap and opened the navigation application. He typed in the coordinates that were written sloppily on the note and pressed enter. With Fichina closer than he expected—only a few million miles, Wolf was jumpy right in the seat of his beloved metal construct, knowing that it would be covered in no time at all.

A crackling sound came through the speaker grille on the dashboard.

"Mister O'Donnell. Are you all set to depart?" A different voice came through, littered with static.

"Yes," then he had a critical realization. "Am I able to come back here?"

"Sure, but only to your place."

Wolf sighed. "That's all I need."

"So, you all set to depart?"

"Considering everything's in working order… guess I am." Wolf sat up, fastened the harness with a couple of clicks and looked straight along the rail and into the vacuum of space. The rail began to raise itself by several feet and caused the Wolfen to levitate. The effects of adrenaline began to take effect as a voice over initiated a countdown and a set of red lights flashed on the side.

 _Three… Two… One…_

The engine roar amplified, as well as the rumbling in the cockpit. He flicked some switches on the periphery.

Green light, loud buzzer, and The Wolfen was launched out at a ludicrous rate, temperatures fluctuating wildly depending on the Wolfen's heading and barometric pressure nonexistent. Wolf maintained the speed as his Wolfen slowly waltzed around the flying asteroids which seemed to be all going in a common direction but at different speeds.

Once out, the Wolfen rolled to the left and right to as Wolf checked if it was working properly before letting the autopilot redirect its course to the bright cyan planet, sitting amongst the mosaic of stars, powdery and wispy colors of nearby nebulae and the arm of the galaxy.

The ship suddenly accelerated to half of light speed, but with G-diffusers active, Wolf did not feel a thing as he had his seat reclined and feet propped on the dashboard.

He grabbed his phone and began playing a well-known orchestral song as he stared up towards to the vastness of space, playing connect-the-dots with the stars. The stars eventually faded to nothingness.

* * *

"Just one more mission… and I am home free…" The orange vulpine sat on the cockpit section of the Great Fox, leaning back and throwing his keys upwards and catching it. Fox began to whistle one of his childhood tunes.

Next to him, the ROB 64 turned to him, 'eyes' flashing red.

"Song found… Title… One on One…"

Fox nodded with pleasure. "Good job ROB. Glad Slippy put _that_ feature in you." Fox found his mouth began to smack.

During one of the off days in terms of space combat, Slippy decided to devote the whole day to upgrade ROB, and that music recognition feature was one of them.

Fox continued to whistle the vocals of the song and spinning the keyring with his left index finger, clinging the keys and such. Soon, he got up to the back corner of the cockpit to fill his large vacuum insulated flask with purified water. With one large gulp of it, he could feel his alertness coming back, as well as the smack sounds of his mouth going away.

He sat on the sofa near it and laid down horizontally, enjoying the silence other than the ambient rumble of the Great Fox's propulsion.

"ROB, how long do we have until we get there?"

"Checking… 27 minutes."

"Give me a wind report."

"Clear skies. Light and variable winds."

That last sentence was what mattered the most to Fox. The many times he tried to navigate his Arwing in heavy wind and vertical shear proved to be a massive chore. Fortunately, after this tiny mission, his and the team's Arwings will be receiving an upgrade, including a wind correction feature to the G-diffusers.

"Hey ROB."

"Yes. Fox."

A gentle smile came across the vulpine's face. "Will you miss us when we part after this mission?"

ROB sat there motionless, eyes flashing as it was trying to answer. "Definitely."

"Aww ROB!" Fox complemented, imagine a blush filling the metallic face. A reminder came up in his head to ask Slippy to program a more natural sounding voice for ROB, as many times his monotone would get annoying rather than corny.

An immediate montage came to Fox of the time Falco made it say and repeat random words or letters making it sound ridiculous and sometimes jokes that were quite dark. Another golden moment was when Falco let ROB "rap," which caused sent the whole team guffawing.

Speaking of Falco, the Great Fox with only ROB and Fox was a pleasant change of pace for the vulpine. It's a relief to have the occasional arguing and mischief between Slippy and Falco to be replaced by pure silence, only with the gentle hum of Great Fox's propulsion.

The last time they argued was when adding the music recognition feature, which was covertly Fox's request.

"Hey ROB, give a mission briefing please."

"Mission briefing. Bring supplies to objective."

"Eh, close enough."

 _Hopefully nothing's going to jinx this final mission…_

* * *

"You are entering Fichina's Climate Control Center airspace. Please state your purpose," the blaring static combined with the grainy female voice was loud enough to snap Wolf from his comatose state. Sitting upright with saliva dripping on the left side of his muzzle, he was already being assaulted by beeping noises telling him his destination was approaching rapidly in 30 miles.

"Uhm… This is Wolf O'Donnell," he replied at a press of a button, feeling the humiliation and realizing he could have met one of his fates if he didn't respond.

"Wolf O'Donnell… Ah, we have been expecting you. Looking for the coffee shop eh?" His dashboard beeped again, screen showing a large arrow. "We have assigned you hangar 4. You may land immediately. Also, parking is seven dollars per hour. We accept payments in all forms."

Wolf looked down and it was a pure expanse of white, with a few cracks running down here and there. In the distance, a clear, somewhat hazy blue sky with what appeared to be some infrastructure on the ground. Once he got close enough, he decreased his altitude just so that the structures below were resolved.

Roads were arranged in a square grid, and in each square were a mix of what seemed to be warehouses, but most of the real estate were large green pastures enclosed in glass structures; each of them seemed to have different things growing. At one point, he saw a truck driving slowly along the lonely road.

Just three miles out of the destination, the roads became a bit curvy and more convoluted as smaller buildings became visible. At a lower altitude he could see sparse tiny dots slowly inch their way on the black roads.

The doughnut shaped objective was finally in view. He concentrated on the arrow as he slowed down his Wolfen a tad bit. He flew over it to find a large piece of asphalt with large numbers painted on it. On the second smaller display, he brought up the camera that displayed the objects under the Wolfen, along with an X-shaped crosshair.

He landed the big "4" under the crosshairs, and with a slight tug of the lever on his right, the Wolfen began to descend like an elevator.

The system began beeping right as the magnets under the pad locked the Wolfen in place so it didn't touch the ground. Wolf put all the levers back to its original positions and turned off the G-diffusers.

Checking the temperature on the dashboard…

4 degrees… Fahrenheit. Hell, on some days in winter that's considered warmer than Corneria City. The station air pressure was 21.2 inHg, which is much lower than what he's used to.

A loud bang sounded as metal sheets protruded around the Wolfen and eventually closing it in.

"You may now exit. Have a great time here," the female voice broadcasted.

Wolf grabbed the large down coat from his bag and wore it before opening the cockpit. As he expected, a swath of freezing air instantly replaced the room-temperature cockpit, prickly to the nose and bitter to the tongue. Even with the down coat, it was much colder than the time Wolf was assigned a job there, even at the same temperature. One breath in and it was not enough to cure his instant lightheadedness.

Down the stairs, there's a pod that he called over, escorting him via underground rail to what seemed to be an extension of the Climate Control Center.

Once the doors opened, a rush of dry heated air immediately replaced the stabbing cold in the pod. As he stepped out into an open expanse, he was greeted with a large LED marquee with white text scrolling left to right.

"WELCOME TO FICHINA."

Arrows that were pasted to the ground guided Wolf to the checkpoint, where an empty maze was set up by those ribbon barriers. There were only two out of the eight desks in service.

"Mister O'Donnell. Welcome," a bulldog spoke as Wolf approached the kiosk. He took out his wallet and pulled out his ID card along with a family photo. Without taking a glance at it, he put the photo and put it behind all his other cards.

The bulldog took his ID and did some typing before handing it back.

"You were just out of custody, am I correct?" The bulldog gave a curious stare.

Wolf replied with a firm yet serious nod.

"Good," The bulldog resumed typing and returned his ID. "Approximately how long will you be here?"

"Hmm…" He looked towards the ceiling. "Maybe an hour or two."

"Have a nice time then. Welcome to Fichina." The gate in front of him opened and Wolf walked to the next section of the facility—after being harassed by a metal detector—which was strangely empty, unfinished and eerily quiet as his footsteps echoed without any damping. The facility is the cleanest place Wolf has ever laid his eyes upon, with the floor and ceiling practically displaying the image of a once fearless man. In the distance there were some parts for what looked like a conveyor belt.

Out the door in front of him, it's another empty hall containing rows of seats and concierge tables, all of which are brightened by natural sunlight. What awaited outside of the windows caught him by surprise.

Ice.

It's obvious since Fichina is known for it, but it's a large square with the ground made completely out of solid white ice, and it had a beautiful woven pattern that was more designed for masonry work. Wolf was perfectly able to walk on it without slipping. In the center, it was an ice statue of… Fox. Surrounding the large plaza, there were more ice sculptures in the distance.

Wolf felt the motivation to walk up and spit at it, after seeing all the fame Fox has and Wolf being on the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead, he stood there like a lifeless husk.

It was indeed a beautiful sight to see, except for the Fox statue, but the large place was rather deserted.

The cold bite came to Wolf quick, making it even colder as the air was extremely dry, easily wicking the sweat off Wolf's face and the rest of his body. Every exhale created a thick shroud of condensed vapor.

He only counted three people walking around the plaza.

 _Do I even dare…_

He walked up to one of them. "Excuse me," he said gently. The person, who's wearing a face mask took a glance at him and walked off at double speed.

Wolf sighed, looking towards his boots.

He eyed his next victim and stalked it. "Excuse me!" He yelled. The stranger stopped and turned around.

"Yes, sir?" A bright masculine voice sounded.

"Do you know where the nearest Galaxia Coffee is?"

The stranger, without a word, pointed in the direction where Wolf was going to originally head, with what looked like single-story buildings littered in the distance. Before Wolf could ask another question, the person was already a couple of feet away from him.

Fatigued, famished, and with the world in front of him beginning to tilt, he made the attempt and walked towards the city limits. The building was ironically very rustic as they were built with earthy hues of brick and stone. The lampposts and signposts looked like something that belonged in the past century or two.

The first building he passed by was a bank, but instead of being explicitly stated, it just had a dollar sign on it.

There were a couple of people who walked by, but they were all on the other side of the road. The ice road itself, however, was completely desolate.

A few paces east and he found an information board, outlining the map of the "town" on one side with numbers on buildings and a directory of venues in a font that's almost impossible to read. Fortunately, with Galaxia Coffee being so popular, it's immediately recognizable by its insignia, which was listed one block north of where he was.

There's a flyer that was jammed in the corner.

"Coming soon! Fichina Ice Hotel! Expected to open during Christmastime!" There's a CAD render of the structure below the text, resembling a castle. The image next to it had a render of the room, which seemed to be in an ice-cavern style environment and the one next to it looked like an amusement park.

To Wolf, if Fichina changed like this, then it would be quite hard to imagine what Corneria City would be like when he finally gets there.

He walked along the path he made in his head to a row of identical houses on both sides, all constructed of the same material as the shops. It's a quiet neighborhood, or maybe perhaps it was just dead silence; no cars, no commotion, not even any environmental noise, just Wolf's own breaths, heartbeat, stomach, and footsteps.

The front square "lawns" on each house looked all the same, so did the windows and the stony façade. All the front gates were closed, and the wooden front door on each house had two stickers on it. In front, it led to more short buildings before vanishing into a spectacular yellow and blue horizon.

 _…_ _Wolf…_

Continuing his walk, he looked towards the rough ice, pacing himself between each square, passing by elegant lampposts as the reflectivity of the white ice became minutely reduced.

 _…_ _I gotta fight him… Wish me luck guys…_

He came to a corner of a blank intersection with a fully working traffic light. What's the purpose of having it there if there's no one around? Looking left and right, there's absolutely nothing.

 _…_ _Lightning Tornado…!_

Wolf hung a right as per his mental GPS, and in the distance, up in the sky was an ocean blue planet, with white wisps and clumps of land… He will have to be there in several hours…

 _…_ _Wolf! It's fucked! Pull out…!_

"Commerce Street" was the name of the road, lined with various rectangular buildings with orange lights filled behind the windows.

Several paces over, it was finally there. The white silhouette insignia of a white coffee bean superimposed on a spiral galaxy. On the door, it said in large print: "WE ACCEPT CASH."

In a sudden, he burst through the glass doors and into the comforting warmth, eyes directly locked on the showcase of succulent muffins and bread.

"Welcome to the new Galaxia! How may I help you today?" A female poodle walked to the register. Wolf had his hands pasted to the glass, saliva cascading in his mouth.

"I'll have two of these!" Wolf pointed to the large blueberry muffin.

"Sure thing. Anything else?"

Wolf walked to the counter and checked the usual menu, which was the same as the ones in Corneria.

"Venti vanilla latte, hot," Wolf had a smile on him.

"Yup!" The cashier pressed some buttons which made beeping noises. "That will be 16.87."

Wolf immediately pulled out his wallet and hastily handed her a twenty.

She took the bill and gave him the rattily change. "Take a seat, I'll bring the food you once it's done."

He immediately grabbed a small table for two that's next to the window. Looking around, the interior emulated a picturesque medieval bar or an alchemist's dwelling judging by the candles mounted on the stone columns, the stone and wood ground, the wooden tables and so on.

The ambience, along with the heat made Wolf immediately sweat; it certainly did resemble a place Wolf knew and loved before he left it…

With the coat hung on the back of the chair, he was wearing his usual mercenary attire, which sent Wolf into more panic. He tried to take off the blue vest, then the lady with his food came from around the counter.

"Ah, you're Wolf O'Donnell!" The Lady remarked.

"Uh… Yes! Yes I am…" He nodded quickly, placing his hands on his thighs, putting on an embarrassing smirk.

"How's the post-prison life treating you?" She put the food down in front of Wolf, making him almost want to smash his muzzle into one of the muffins.

"It's fine."

"Good! Enjoy your meal, especially after tasting all of the prison trash." She walked away, leaving Wolf surprised. No matter, the food and the white creamy latte giving off the hot saccharine vanilla scent in front was all that he needed. He went to the front desk and grabbed a newspaper that was piling up the container.

When Wolf took a small sip of the coffee, he let out the most elated exhale. The creaminess, flavoring, and sweetness were in perfect harmony.

First it was the check of the weather, and it was more complicated than he thought as a simple heat wave forecast was described in two hundred words with advanced terms like ridge, CAPE, lapse rate, etc. It was forecasted to be rainy that night with a low of 24°C. Then, he grabbed a pencil to get to work on his favorite part of the newspaper: crossword.

With a combination of filling in words, drinking a sip, taking bites, and smooth jazz comforting his ears, his conscience became smooth sailing.

"Oh thank you Fox!"

Wolf gulped down the searing hot coffee hard.

 _ **What!?**_

* * *

 **Endnote:**

\- Galaxia Coffee is basically their version of Starbucks

\- And yes, we introduce Fox here. Oh I wonder what will happen to them!

\- To put things in perspective, the standard atmospheric pressure (1 atm) is 29.92 inHg (inches of mercury). At that pressure, it is equivalent to being 8572 feet above sea level on Corneria. (Yes I actually calculated it.)

\- (-4°F) = -15.6°C. Without the Climate Control Center it would be much colder.

\- Fun fact, I wrote this whilst listening to _Sweden_ by C418. It gives that picturesque barren yet beautiful icy landscape of Fichina.


	4. A Cup of Coffee

**IV - A Cup of Coffee**

Fox pushed a metal flatbed cart with a large wooden crate resting on it with a trace of struggle. It had the word "FRAGILE" in large print sprayed on all six faces.

"Thanks for delivering the dishes and silverware, Fox. I really appreciate it," the cashier walked around to pick up the box and brought it into the kitchen.

"No problem, ma'am." Fox stretched and yawned, smacking his mouth and breaking a sweat.

Wolf ever so slightly aimed his eyes up towards him. His coffee began to taste like it's out of date, and so did the other muffin he was about to shove down his throat. He thought about throwing his coat over his head, but that would raise some eyebrows since it was too late as he was the only person sitting. He resumed his half-incomplete crossword puzzle, desperately trying to churn the mental dictionary without the entry of Fox into his mind.

"Your mission status has been processed, so have a nice day!" The cashier flashed a sincere smile.

"You too," Fox waved.

He turned around and began striding towards the door, but just centimeters away from the door, he slowed down came to a dead halt. He felt something strange… It's in a form of a small migraine he hadn't had experienced for over two years and almost completely forgot about it. It was right there to his left within arm's reach.

Wolf began to pump copious amounts of cold sweat as he observed from his peripheral while his heart beat like a drum in a heavy metal song.

Sure it was Fox's last mission before his upcoming sabbatical, but he was dreading that something would have happened to him that would ruin it. It was the man who tried to end the team many times and yet unconventionally saved them from certain demise during the Aparoid war, which was the last time they have met. He did know that Wolf was out of prison, but he least expected him to be on such a bitterly cold planet.

"Wolf?" Fox spoke, with a dash of hesitation, thinking that it would have instigated Wolf's antagonism.

 _Oh god damn._ Wolf slowly angled his head up, eyeing the bane of his existence standing a foot away from him. "Hello Fox," Wolf kept a flat affect before resuming to his puzzle. _Guess he wants to finish me today, doesn't he?_

Fox was completely thrown off; he would not have been if Wolf would have stood up and shot him, but his apparent calmness raised a disproportionate number of red flags than usual.

His thoughts were at an all-out war as he was faced with two choices: bolt out the door or _try_ to talk to him. The choice was at utmost priority since Wolf was already aiming his singular pupil at him like he was projecting a crosshair onto Fox.

With his right hand nearing his blaster, he walked away from the door, around the fence. "This seat taken?" He placed his hand on the chair directly across from Wolf.

Wolf, still flatly eyeing him, placed his pencil down and sipped his sour coffee and paused for several seconds. "No." He cleared out some space on the other side of the rectangular table by placing the objects on the rough stone windowsill. "Sit." His turbulence did not subside. His stomach began to feel acrid as all his blood flow was being directed to the brain to come up with meaningful chatter to confront his worst nightmare that's about to sit in front of him, and possibly kill him in retaliation.

Fox sat down at a rate of a senile and righted himself, facing his source of his migraine, who was still conscientiously completing the last blank squares on the puzzle. It is the closest that he has ever been in proximity of him thus far. From the last dogfight several years ago, he remembered the image of Wolf that appeared on his Arwing's comm as a reference as he examined him. The only differences he could make out were his eyepatch and the slight overgrowth of fur with some gleam on it, which could be from oil or sweat.

The two bathed in absolute silence apart from the heater starting another cycle. Wolf nibbled on the muffin and took another swig of coffee. With no ideas on the last couple of missing words on the puzzle, he thought it _might_ be a good idea to do something else.

"So. Tell me, Fox. How have things been." Wolf looked down at his muffin, noting its texture and color.

"It's been nice." He quietly replied.

"Nice… Elaborate on what _nice_ is." His voice became rougher towards the end.

"Well…" Fox tapped his index finger on his chin, resting his elbow on the table, sweating mostly because of the heat. "That was the final mission."

"Final mission. So Star Fox _is_ dead."

"No. Just on hiatus."

Wolf replied with a slow nod, taking another swig of the coffee. "Good for you then. Guess you deserve it."

Those were some surprisingly new phrases coming from him apart from the smug ones he has gotten used to. Fox was at least expecting an ego-inflated smirk from him at the news of it. "Thanks…?"

Wolf unraveled the newspaper, looking at the other puzzles such as the obligatory sudoku and word search which to him were completely dull. There were not any major headlines plastered on the front pages, except for a small section of Wolf's release.

A turn of a page, a sigh. Another turn of a page, another sigh, and a sip of the coffee, which tasted a tad creamier.

An old comic series was printed on the page Wolf was scanning his eye at, and a moment later he slowly shook his head and went back to the puzzles section.

Fox, with more sweat dripping at the ends of his orange fur, took off his blue coat, revealing his usual Star Fox combat uniform as he stared at the puzzles that Wolf was working on and how determined he was when he drew the path in the maze and then suddenly stopped and flipped to the next page which existed void space.

Wolf stood up with a sensation of fire burning within his head. "I am going to the restroom." He suddenly turned around and pointed at Fox with his sharp claws. "Do not touch my food." Fox watched Wolf walk up front, tail sweeping side to side, noticing that he was more physically fit than he had pictured under that black shirt. Looking to the left, right, left and then right, Wolf finally spotted the restroom sign that blended in with the wood wall and walked over with haste with both of his hands clenched in a fist.

With Wolf out of his presence, Fox's other senses began to take over, enabling him to smell the sweet vanilla creamy coffee hugging his olfactory receptors, triggering a waterfall of saliva cascading in his mouth. Albeit it's a major and overrated coffee chain, there's something peculiar about it here that intrigued Fox. He grabbed the newspaper and went to the unfinished crossword puzzle Wolf was working on and grabbed his pencil.

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Wolf stood at the black granite sink, looking at the mess he was in while he listened to the uncomfortably fast beating heart that he could feel through his whole head as his face was cooking up like a radiator. Turning on the cold tap, which went through a water heater, he put two palms together and pooled some water before splashing his face. He stood there, managing his hair as his heart slowly went back to beating at a reasonable pace.

"Maybe it won't be bad as I think…" He spoke to his reflection, "C'mon, Wolf… you're outta prison… Don't wanna go back again, do you?"

"No… but he tried to kill you… many times." He whined to the mirror.

"If I killed him, that'll spawn more problems." He thought it through and immediately trashed the idea since his finesse of being his 'most feared man in the system' maxim has been most likely deprecated as everyone knew.

Once he heard the door squeak, Fox quickly chucked the newspaper to where he got it from and fumbled as he dropped his pencil. Fortunately, Wolf wasn't looking towards him and if he did, he would have been given a tour of Wolf's fangs. He slowly picked up the pencil and placed it based on his estimation.

Wolf sat down without a word and resumed his puzzle.

"Fox." He raised his head. "You actually filled some words in."

"Yes, I did."

"Hmph. Impressive." Wolf looked over. "I was stumped on the one where it said, 'Unit of energy' with five letters."

"That one was obvious Wolf. It's the Joule."

"Joule. Oh right. How could I forget _those_. All that's in my mind were BTUs or foot-pounds."

"The heck are those?"

"It's our way of mensuration. We just grew with it, even though it's the most annoying thing ever."

"Right. I am curious. What's a BTU then?"

"Energy needed to heat a pound of water by a degree Fahrenheit."

"Whoa, smarty pants. What does all of that mean?"

Wolf chuckled with intimidation. "I knew it would be too much for you to handle." With the words on the puzzle partially complete, he could see it through and began filling it in. "Well, thanks to you. It's done. I was planning to figure it all out all by myself." He placed the pencil on the desk before it began rolling and dropped to the ground.

"No problem, I guess?" Fox nodded. His heart itched once he saw Wolf flash an unsuspecting smirk at him as he bent down to get his pencil. A sudden flood of light bled in from outside, as the both looked out, the sky has turned from a bright, magnificent blue to a black mosaic of stars and nearby planets, and more people were walking about along the brightly lit curb.

"So Fox, what are you planning to do while on your break?" Wolf placed his right elbow on the desk, resting his head on the palm of his hand.

"I haven't a clue. I have to plan something to keep myself busy."

"Like what?"

"Like I said, I haven't a clue."

"Fair enough." Wolf took a large gulp of coffee and let out an exhale that doubled Fox's saliva production.

"Wolf, what coffee are you drinking?" Fox pointed at the mug, which seemed to change color based on the temperature of the liquid.

"Vanilla latte. It's good."

"Right, because you just got out of prison."

Wolf's face immediately scrunched in disgust. "Shut it."

"Well, I had it before getting on the Great Fox and it just tasted watered down."

"Yes, but it's totally different here. Go try it yourself."

"Sure." Fox got up—with his left stand still millimeters away from his blaster—to the counter, especially to the fridge showcasing the various mouthwatering pastries. Once he eyed the cakes, it struck the right chord and instinctively went to order by hitting the bell three times in rapid succession.

Wolf grabbed his coffee stirrer and twirled it around in the coffee, watching the swirls of the cream come together in the shape of a spiral galaxy and slowly becoming a large blob resembling an amoeba. He took another large bite of the sweet muffin, savoring the extreme sweetness of the blueberries as he watched Fox arrive with a tray with a cake and a small cup.

"I told you to get a latte and you got this?" Wolf partially raised both of his hand in confusion, staring at the small cup resting on a dish and a square cake with brown powder sprinkled on top.

"Sorry. Instincts." Fox perked his shoulders.

"Pssh… Well you can tell me what you got."

"The usual thing I get at these stores—tiramisu and espresso."

"I am not a fan of their cakes. Last time I had that it tasted like rubber."

"Neither am I." Fox looked at the cashier desk, devoid of any people. "It's the thing I loved to have during my academy days when I went binge studying for those oral exams with my besties. It was great back then."

"Why did you get it now if you don't like it?"

"Morbid curiosity."

"Okay… you do you then." Wolf put the newspaper to the side. The espresso was steaming excessively, diffusing rapidly into Wolf's nose. "Hmm… that espresso smells really good."

Fox went to close in his muzzle at the cup and took a full inhale. "Now that you said it, it does. It's… richer than I thought it would be."

"Well, take a swig."

Fox did exactly what the lupine prescribed. His eyes quickly widened as he spat it out quickly and put the cup on the dish with a clang as he turned to the side and winced with his mouth open, panting.

"You alright, Fox?"

"Yes. I should have waited a bit more." Fox stuck his tongue out for a few more seconds, surprised at the words that came out of his mouth. Wolf stood up and went to the counter, evident by a strike of the bell.

He came over with a glass of water with several ice cubes suspended near the top. "Here." He said as he put it on the table a tad forcefully.

"Uh… thanks… Wolf…" After all the dogfights they had, he was at an absolute loss. All that he could associate was that time he was unexpectedly rescued. Fox drank a large gulp of the water before he dug the fork in the cake and scooped out the corner, placing it in his mouth. "Mmm!" his emerald eyes beamed as he chewed and sloshed it around the mouth. "You should definitely try this, Wolf."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I told you. The cakes in Galaxia taste like rubber." A gruff began to mix into his voice.

"I thought so too until I bit into this one."

"I refuse."

"Come on, it's totally different here. Try it out!" Fox beamed favorably and offered him his fork. Wolf, keeping a flat affect, encountered an esoteric and wavering sensation diffused within him. A smile like that coming from his nightmare… certainly was defying all expectations.

"Fine…" Wolf got up and left, throwing Fox off guard, before coming back with a clean plastic fork. He scooped a smaller piece from the opposite corner where Fox dug in. He slowly slipped the contents in his mouth, an ensemble of flavors brilliantly exploded within his mouth causing millions of taste buds scrambling to get some of it. Fox was witnessing all of it unfold as he didn't spit it out or forcefully gulp it down as a pill. Wolf pivoted his head to Fox, staring at him directly with the deep red iris.

"It's… okay…" He muttered and became reluctant to drink the rest of his latte as he watched Fox conscientiously alternate between eating the pieces of the cake and sipping the espresso like a madman. The heart wrenching part was watching the cake being eaten, but at the same time, his stomach was denying entry of any solid consumable as it was busy decomposing two large muffins. He looked outside, tapping his claws rhythmically on the lacquered wood, finishing the last of his latte.

"Phew!" Fox took a napkin and went across the mouth. "That was good eating." He chucked it backwards into the dustbin, which was directly adjacent. "What now, Wolf?"

"Why are you asking me?" His voice perked a bit in surprise and began to amplify in volume. "This wasn't plaaaaaned to happen." He pointed at the desk on every word.

"Because… well… we're here and…" Fox looked around, fidgeting with his fingers. "I am sure you want to go back home, right?"

"Maybe."

"What do you mean?"

"I just came here to get coffee so I don't crash in my Wolfen." Wolf wore his serious face, showing a bit of the fangs.

"Okay," he said, without any trace of fear or anger. It was that face shown on Fox's dashboard that caused him the acute migraines, but it became was a completely different story. Fox stood up and donned his blue coat with the hat lined with synthetic white fur. It was then Wolf's turn as he put his army green coat on and strapped it tightly. One after another, they carried the empty receptacles to the waste collection desk before walking to the door, with Fox leading the way.

Lylat's daily shift for the place has completed, leaving it bathed in stabbing, unforgiving cold and darkness, Fox began to immediately tremor whilst Wolf was holding up quite well perhaps due to his slight overgrowth of fur. The silence was one of those things that blessed Fox's ears.

Fox turned left, and Wolf, after looking both ways many times, eventually followed him, keeping at least three feet of distance. Thankfully no one was around to raise red flags and thinking Wolf was stalking him. He looked above and saw the distant image of Corneria, complete with the wispy clouds and carved out continents; his eyes could only look at it for so long before it started to make Wolf feel heavy-hearted.

"Why are you f-fo-fo-following me?" Fox, shivering badly, turned to Wolf.

Wolf shrugged. "Just because."

"Do you want t-t-to g-get f-f-f-framed again?"

"No one's around. Besides, I haven't done anything bad yet, chump."

"Yet…" Fox thought that it could have ended right there with an unsuspecting shot to the head. "I thought you're going back home."

"Well I didn't say I was in a hurry."

"Whatever you say."

"Where are we headed? We're going to freeze to death if we walk like a snail." Fox flashed a dirty look at him, surprised that he's still maintaining a stable posture whilst Fox was leaning over, shriveled and shaking as he walked.

"The market that's right up ahead," Fox pointed.

From what he has witnessed from all the other buildings, the best guess for Wolf was the building with the shopping bag symbol in front was the store above the tinted glass automated doors, which slid open as they took a step near.

Inside, it was much cooler than the coffee shop. Fluorescent daylight tubes that were mounted to rectangular ceiling fixtures in series of three made the place eye-achingly bright, but it did give the disparity of colorful products lined on the shelves some saturation.

Fox grabbed a red basket and went for the fruits display, and Wolf was stunned at how colorful they were. Wolf held an apple in his hand, which was mind-boggling since it was as large as his hand, with the colors deep and rich perhaps under the light or being an extensive property. The bananas there seemed to have the length and size of plantains, and the plantains seemed to be two inches longer than usual. _Where the hell am I?_ Wolf properly thought to himself as saw the softball sized oranges.

"Fox."

"What?" Fox immediately turned his head to the side, catching Wolf in his periphery.

"What's with these fruits?"

"I forgot to mention. There are a lot of greenhouses in the outskirts. They do a lot of… experiments on crops."

"So you are telling me the coffee we drank was a result of an experiment."

"Yes."

"Well… It did taste rather good. Kudos to them." Fox stared at Wolf, thrown off since he was expecting Wolf to have a meltdown, which would be rather funny and scary at the same time.

"I haven't tried these yet, so let's get two," Fox put two apples in the basket and went to the freezer section, where they displayed the usual chicken, beef, pork and veal and its organs. It was nothing interesting compared to the fruits as they looked the same in any Cornerian supermarket.

"How much were the apples?" Wolf curiously asked.

"Three dollars."

"Three bucks?" Wolf recoiled, "I could get half of dozen for that price in Corneria!"

"Well, we can see if they are worth it later. After all, I am paying."

Towards the end were multicolored bottles of fruit juice. As Wolf was reeling in from what he just saw, a bottle of freshly squeezed apple juice piqued Fox's attention.

"Four bucks? For a 300-milliliter bottle? You must be a lunatic, Fox." Wolf objected as Fox dropped it in the basket.

"CDF members and affiliates get 50 percent off everything here."

"Oh, well. At least you're paying," Wolf grumbled.

"Well," Fox chuckled. "Do _you_ want anything?"

"Yes. That." Wolf pointed to the bottle of apple juice, still inherently flustered and confused. Fox dropped it into the basket without any hesitation.

The back wall of the store was lined with closed refrigerators and freezers, showcasing all things dairy, desserts and frozen foods mostly locally made.

"Anything else before we go to the snacks aisle?"

"No."

"Okay." They turned left in one of the middle aisles, both sides filled with a vivid spectrum of bags and paper packages. Along with some locally grown products, there were also imports which ruled most of the store. Fox grabbed a large bag of jalepeño flavored chips.

"Last time, Wolf. Do you want anything?"

"I'll just have the apple and the juice."

Fox went back to the front of the store, exhibiting a wooden shelf of large glass bottles of water that seemed only to be exclusive in this place.

"Fichina Pure, 100 percent filtered water from the glaciers and rivers of Fichina. Two liters." Fox recited the label as if he was giving a presentation.

"With that price it should be a _gallon_." Wolf noted the price of 4.50 per bottle.

"Well I don't know what a _gallon_ is, but hey, let's try it out." Fox grabbed one for him and took another to show in front of Wolf.

"Fine." He snatched it from him.

Wolf followed them to an apparent unmanned checkout counter. Once Fox stepped near it, a black conveyor belt began to silently roll. He placed each item one by one before they were transported into a gate, beeping as the items went through. Fox stared blankly at the items falling into the reusable bag he brought, pondering about an idea and whether it would be a dangerous one or a one that would completely pay off.

"Fox… The greedy machine's waiting for you to feed it money…" The voice of Wolf brought him back to reality, which is a ridiculous price in red being displayed on the screen. Fox scanned his ID, and the price was cut in half to a more reasonable amount, typical of a shopping trip of this magnitude. Wolf watch Fox pull out his phone and pull up a QR code, and with a simple scan, it immediately spat out the receipt. Fox took the bag and stood by the door, somewhat shaking.

He activated his comm and made a call to ROB and then the air traffic controller at the base the two landed at.

Wolf slowly walked over, with his hands stuffed in his coat pocket, twirling around the loose strings in there.

"You're heading back?" Wolf asked.

"Well, sort of."

"Sort of?" Wolf crossed his arms.

"Well…" Fox sighed. "It gets lonely when I fly the Arwing alone. It's just a small space with nothing to do other than looking at empty space. Do you get the same feeling when you fly your Wolfen?"

Wolf began processing a series of images and montages, mostly of him relaxing within his Wolfen with his cellphone fastened to the dashboard, blasting music from it. Then he took his destination, Corneria, into account. The memories he just formed completely shattered into indistinguishable fragments. It was a mandate to get there eventually and check in with the general. His head began to lose weight, thus he simply nodded as a reply.

"Hm. Interesting," said the vulpine, using his free index finger to tap his muzzle. "After the war, every planet seems to be minding their own business with only real missions like being a courier, which I am doing now. It's completely dull. Don't take this the wrong way, but I rather fight you tha-"

"Nope. Stop talking," Wolf held out his palm at Fox and looked away. "Where are your annoying friends?"

"They are living ordinary lives back home, catching up on life. It's only me that's here." An aroma of relief diffused through Wolf. "I mean, that's what we all have to do, especially you." Wolf began to shake from the thoughts associated with it, strange to Fox to seem him shake in the store but not outside, but his pupils were double in size.

"Hey Wolf." Fox waved his hands in front of his face.

"Oh, wha?" Wolf caught his arm by the wrist, making Fox flinch that he was about to twist it.

"Anything wrong?"

"Uh, nothing! Everything is fine," droplets of sweat collected on his facial fur like dew. It was Fox's first time to see Wolf like _that._

"Come on, something's bothering you."

"No. Even if there is anything, it's private."

"I see. Anyways, do you want to eat and drink the stuff now or later?"

"What do you mean by _later_?"

"Well, I was thinking you could spend some time on the Great Fox as we all go back."

Wolf's ears perked as he stood frozen, but after several seconds, he slowly nodded with his eyes closed, "Sure," and began a rant with a playful undertone. "Well why didn't you tell me that earlier? I could have bought a lot more stuff!"

Fox chuckled and beamed foolishly as his heart was being warmed by Wolf's radiating smile. "Well, take a basket, call me over when you're ready to pay!"

* * *

 **Endnote**

\- Well, it happened. Hopefully it didn't come off as weird, or if it did, it must have been intended.

\- I love it when no one wants to review. It's just like my exam papers or lab reports. It's like buying a car with some fatal flaw no one told you about until it rears its ugly head. Please review... :) I am looking for room for improvement, craft-wise and syntax-wise.


	5. Two Worlds

V – Canis Major and Minor

Author's Note:

Hello everyone. It's been three months.

If you have the thought that this chapter is going to be good well sadly you are mistaken. Why? School.

Writing a 10-ish page lab report every week really kills my motivation and inspiration in writing fiction, so every time I resume writing this, it's hard to get back on track since the pace gets out of whack. Plus, I have exams every week and problem sets too. Just your regular college complaint.

Anyways, back to the story. Enjoy if you can.

Also, two parter.

* * *

A young, light grey but mostly white lupine with a black panther walked casually along the sidewalk parallel to a street paved with cobblestone and shrouded in the ambient noise of Corneria City after sunset on a weekday. Melodies of horns honking at different pitches and octaves resonated from road to road. A bright green newer model supercar, hovering about six inches off the road, sped by them with a loud whoosh.

He pulled out his phone and opened the maps to see if he was at the right place, and his location dot was overlapping with the checkered flag. Looking around his current positions, the nearby elevated expressways were colored red and some spots maroon. Zooming out, many other expressways had the same garnish.

"You are at your destination. Look to your right," a female robotic voice sounded from Panther's phone as both members had their maps up.

"Well…" Panther said as he placed his phone in the pocket of his cargo shorts, examining the quite out of place architecture, comprising of an overdose of brown and red brick, dwarfed by the other buildings typical of the city. Places like this are still common, spanning for a few blocks and usually sandwiched between areas of more residential high-rises and business plazas.

"Something seems odd about this place…" Jon spoke as he glanced forward.

It looked incredibly familiar yet incredibly foreign simultaneously. He walked into the alcove, where the entrance was, guarded by a door with a metal frame, with the rest glass with metal wires crosshatched within. Looking through, there was a white hallway which led to an elevator that had chipped paint, and there were stairs on the right side along with the blue mailboxes. Somehow, the layout seemed to ring a bell.

"Anything wrong, Jonathan?" Panther tapped him on his shoulder, looking at him, snout pasted to the glass with condensation forming on the glass around it. "Hey!" Panther did his best to shout, but due to his voice, it sounded incredibly out of place. Jonathan slowly turned his body to face Panther.

"Nothing. Just looking around the interior."

"You're acting just like your dad, staring into space," Panther spoke, leaning against the brick wall and crossing his arms, "not that it's a completely bad thing."

The young lupine simply scratched his head before looking to the right of the door, which mounted a keypad and a camera. Instead of a number pad, each button was the room number. Jonathan squinted his eyes as he scanned each number, from floor 2 to floor 6.

"Panther?" Jonathan turned back his head to see Panther rapidly typing.

"Yes?"

"What _room_ was it?"

"204?" Panther recited.

"Uh… why don't you take a look?" Jonathan stepped back, allowing Panther to step up. Immediately, he noticed the error. There were rooms 201 and 202, but not 204. However, there's a room 402.

"Oh, sorry. It is room 402." Panther corrected.

"Sure. Watch, it's going to be some random person telling us to screw off." Jonathan pressed the button as suggested, and the system gave a different beep before sounding the dial tone, which perked both pairs of ears. Panther walked up to the keypad system, patiently waiting for any answer.

 ** _"_** ** _We are sorry. The resident is currently unable to answer your call."_**

"Well. That's the third time I checked today." Panther clicked his tongue in succession. "If he was released, he would come back here in a heartbeat, won't he?"

Jon became speechless as all his hype that was alive within him disintegrated. He couldn't blame anyone or himself but Wolf. He pressed the button again, and after the longest thirty seconds, it resulted in the same message. He landed his right fist on the glass, which Panther thought it was going to shatter. He turned to Panther and gave a shrug.

"Hey… come on… It's only been several hours. We will have better luck tomorrow, champ," Panther smiled. The lupine closed his eyes and nodded in response.

They slowly made their way along the tiled concrete sidewalk towards the curb, with each standing on one side of a fire hydrant. Panther raised his right foot and rested it on one of the side outlets as he checked the map in his uncomfortably damp shirt which thankfully Jonathan did not notice the odor. The liberal amounts of deodorant and cologne he applied worked wonderfully.

Jonathan stood with hands stuffed in his cargo shorts pocket, quietly humming as he studied the stout and brick-laden buildings along the streets, surrounded by the chromatic glowing beacons of progress that define the city, many of which towering over a half of a kilometer.

It was one of those older neighborhoods where next to the entrance of an apartment building occupied a venue such as a convenience store, bar, family owned establishments, and more. Some establishments like nightclubs were hidden in alleys. These kinds of places are unfortunately stereotyped by the younger generation as being sketchy and poor, but the property values in those older places are cheaper, but still expensive to an outsider.

The horns have dimmed down, only leaving a roaring cityscape in the background.

To their south was a two-lane road separated by a wide median, with a viaduct built on it. A black subway train sped and rumbled by on said viaduct above the street with glass barriers erected on both sides.

Both of their ears perked as he heard an erratic honk from their right. A hovering white sedan rounded a right turn onto the one-way street and halted right front of the two, blasting the _Carmen_ suite before turning the volume down on the radio.

"Look, it's the karma chameleon," Panther announced as he walked towards the front.

"Ah, look what we got here, cat and dog! You didn't tell me you're inviting the new _lord_ on the trip!"

"Yeah yeah we get it." The cat slowly shook his head and sighed. Panther stepped and opened the front door and the lupine entered the rear and scooched to the middle. It immediately reminded him of the last time the three hung out and Leon acted the same, and Jonathan stole all his spotlight. Jonathan has only been with Leon once whilst with Panther more than ten times.

"Come on, pussy, why didn't you let the _lord_ ride shotgun?"

Panther flashed Leon a dirty look as he forgot about their 'buddy codenames.' "We are on Corneria, not in Sargasso."

"It's fine, Leon," the white lupine assured.

"You sure?" Leon looked towards the lupine with his big eyes.

"Yes," the lupine nodded with a flat affect.

"Right, where are we going, _Lord_?" The chameleon grasped his hands on the wheel.

"Leon, didn't you tell me about that burger restaurant?" Panther whispered to him

"Hush! Let's let Wolf Junior over here decide first!"

Panther crossed his arms and looked back. It had to be a joke as his mind grazed over texts from the conversations from two months ago.

"I am fine with burgers. Just anything not acidic."

"Good choice! You are making more solid decisions than your dad!"

As much as Panther wanted him to stop talking, he resisted the urge to chuckle.

"Wait, you know what?" Leon reached over to the right and opened the glovebox, obtaining a black eyepatch.

"Hey, hey! Wait, what are you— Ow!" He strapped on the eyepatch, with the eyepiece slapping onto his left eye.

"There we go! Looking rad as hell!" the manic smile still stayed on Leon's rough face, clapping two times and then laughing before taking his phone and snapping a picture. He looked at his reflection in the rear-view mirror, and it was shockingly identical to those mugshots he has seen years ago. Jon caught the whiff of Leon's breath that was scented with cigars.

"Hey, send that to me," Panther said.

"Say no more, puss." With a few taps on Leon's phone, Panther's phone dinged.

Panther began to chuckle rather than cringe at Leon. "You really do look like a good substitute for your father. Hell, even the same intimidating face. All we need is the sawblade hair."

"You're the best O'Donnell we got. You would be the one who would _share_ the pizza puffs _evenly_."

"Ooo, that's right. Don't tell that to your daddy, or else he'll rip you apart." Panther chuckled.

After what they have been said, Jonathan wondered: Was he _really_ that bad?

"Right! What I want to see from you is you ripping apart that _two-pound_ burger! We're going to Ursa's Burger Shack! 20 miles north of here!" Leon has been surprising Panther more so than the young lupine.

"Two pound what?" Jon's stomach immediately shrunk as he echoed in disbelief. His bottle of pink bismuth in the medicine cabinet back in his room instantly came to his mind.

"You'll see!" Leon turned forward and dragged the 'transmission' stick, resuming his music playlist. "Actually it's 1 _kilogram_ , but you better shove it all down your throat!"

As Leon drove smoothly, the white lupine stared at the building they were at straying further away before being obstructed by another brick building as the car rounded another left turn.

Leon added, finally speaking in his normal voice. "I always pictured little Jonathan as a Star Wolf member, a _bona fide_ Star Wolf leader."

"Yes, but isn't Star Wolf gone?

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, puss. He's not here yet."

A moment later, they were already cruising on the elevated expressways with towering buildings embezzled with LED marquees and various spectrum of lights passing on both sides. The markings on the streets were brightly illuminated, along with the railings and barriers. Panther leaned his head on the passenger side window.

After a couple more miles on the expressway, more and more residential high-rises passed by along with some brightly lit mixed-use skyscrapers, even as they approached the hinterlands of the city proper.

"Hey Panther, if I _kill_ you, don't that mean I _slay puss_?" Leon put on a smirk, reverting to the maniacal voice he had before.

"Ugggh. That's joke's so seven years ago." Panther rolled his eyes, as it was the first in the series of crude humor the three would toss around. "Save the midlife crisis for another time."

"Oh! Well sorrrrrry!" He swayed his head side to side, with the goal to not elicit a reaction from Panther. Leon noticed in the rear-view mirror that Jonathan was covering his mouth, grinning, eyes squinting, trying his best not to burst out in deafening laughter

He stopped at a busy intersection after a down ramp of the elevated highway with the blinkers ticking. The cars and buses were still at high volumes as they inched horizontally along the major road below that is perpendicular to the viaduct. As the car idled in the red-light queue, the two in front could make out the youthful squeaky suppressed laughter coming from behind.

"Good going Leon. You broke him."

"That was what I was going for!" Leon looked back to see the subsiding laughter coming from the lupine as he sat up. It wasn't long until Leon felt a yearning in his heart as images of Wolf began to juxtapose with Jonathan. "Do you remember the first time I told that joke?"

"Hmmm… that was back in '98, right? Yes. That's when I first joined."

"Remember how Wolf acted?"

"Yes, I do remember. He was breathless after three minutes."

"I miss those days… This is the best I can do to relive it, Panther…" Panther shook his head as a choking feeling arose in both. He looked back at the lupine and put his left hand on Leon's shoulder.

"We'll see him again, only time will tell…"

* * *

"We have everything," Fox paid for Wolf's items with his cellphone; Wolf's order consisted of three bottles of mango juice, a bag of tomato flavored chips and a bag of honey-roasted peanuts. He swiped the plastic bag, which cost a dollar fifty, and firmly held it in his hands. The two zipped up their jacket before walking out to the stabbing cold which ran through Fox's body like an electric current from a taser and his breaths were puffing out like a steam engine.

"What's the time in…" he gulped, "you know where."

Fox took out his phone with his tremoring hands. "t-twenty and half." He unsteadily put his phone back, not knowing he was about three meters ahead from Wolf. "Why, are you in a hurry?"

"Uh, no. Let's take our time. Looks like you're the one in a hurry."

"Well I want to get to the Great Fox immediately."

"Pssh. Fair enough." Wolf reluctantly picked up the pace to match Fox's as they traversed the same path lined with row houses in silence. This time it was completely different. Soft white lights shone through the windows on majority of the houses, some with silhouettes moving. Instead of pure, deafening silence that Wolf was in earlier, muffled bass resonated from a house on the left side at a fast and head-bopping beat, with the light strobing on the window and cycling through different colors at an insanely fast rate.

Once they were further enough, the house on the right at the intersection was blasting another song, far more relaxed than the one they heard. It was mostly acoustic, drums and vocals. Both of their ears were perked. Fox knew the song two years before the end of the Lylat Wars began and it was a huge hit all over Corneria, and Wolf was resisting the urge to hum the lyrics, having heard it on his time on Venom via unsanctioned radio transmissions and enjoying it more than enough times.

"Do you know the song?"

"No… Do you?"

Fox nodded. "I don't know the title. I have definitely heard it."

The song made the cold a tiny bit more bearable for Fox, but it made Wolf shiver a little.

After turning left at the post of the town map, the large, horizontally-spanning building stood like a wall, studded with red lights along the top softly pulsing in intensity and bright white lights lined the façade in a grid-like pattern. In front of it was the square that Wolf was earlier, trying to find his way, which became more difficult than he thought.

The trip to the building was spent in pure tranquility that the two could not enjoy. For one it was way too cold. For the other, his psyche was a crowded house full of rumors and more questions than hatred for his archrival.

Music filled his head, taming the ricocheting thoughts to the best of his ability. Fox stopped in the middle of the square, viewing and admiring the commemorative statue of him made of ice as Wolf turned around and patiently waited for his ego exhibition to end as he marvelled the starry night that he knew well. A red planet was to his left, and a blue and green planet, a bit smaller than the red one, was to his right.

Once Fox began to walk towards Wolf, the two went back through the doors of the airport they exited earlier. Fox let out a large, voiceless exhale as he was hugged by warmth. Contrary to what Wolf has seen earlier, there were a few inhabitants in the main concourse, mostly walking around or sitting in groups of two. Everyone Wolf noticed ever since he set foot had unanimously the same motif when it came to appearance—shiny badges and a nametag pinned on the left side of their chest.

Wolf exhibited Fox more carefully and concluded that it was a downgraded version of his uniform. Through another set of double doors, they encountered the security area lined with ribbon barriers and sets of metal detectors and counters on the other side of said barriers. All except one counter was empty, and the one in question had six canines huddled with their phones out, chuckling and giggling as they showed each other the stuff on the screens.

As the two approached, all six of them had a frozen expression as they locked eyes onto the two.

"Whoa, Fox!" A bright voice came from the group.

"Hey guys," Fox waved.

"Holy crap, yous a big man now!" The beige bulldog behind the counter stood and looked at the two sharply.

Fox was the one to go first, and it only took thirty seconds for the verification to go through.

"I would've never imagined. From mortal enemies to friends… ain't it cute."

"Not really friends, sir."

"Uh huh," the bulldog nodded sarcastically. "What's the deal then?"

"Uh…" Fox began to sweat. "I was assigned a mission for escort."

The crowd gave a conformed nod.

"Understandable." The bulldog returned Fox's card. "Anything else?"

"Wolf?" Fox turned his head to Wolf, who was fidgeting with his claws.

"Hmm?" He looked up towards him.

"Which hangar is your Wolfen parked in?"

"None of your business," Wolf immediately growled back.

"Well, do you want to get on the Great Fox or not?"

"Suuuure, I do," he grumbled and rolled his eyes.

 _"_ _What a change…"_ wondered the vulpine before clearing his throat. "So… What hangar?"

"I forgot."

"Come on, Wolf. Who forgets their hangar number?"

"I _honestly_ forgot about it, Fox. Six maybe?"

"Right, stop arguin like lil kids and I'll look at the database." The bulldog went to work on the keyboard while the other five canines resisted the urge to giggle.

"Hangar four," the bulldog grabbed his communicator and pressed a couple of buttons on it. Fox could faintly hear the long beeps of the dial tone.

"Told ya Fox," Wolf snickered.

"What's up?" A faint female voice leaked from the earpiece.

"Yes, Sara. Could ya activate those magnetic movers and move the Wolfen and Fox's Arwing from hangars 2 and 4 respectively to the Great Fox carriage? Thanks."

"Affirmative," the connection cut out with a double beep. "It might take 10 to 15 minutes."

Fox walked forward a meter. "Next!" the bulldog called out, and Wolf walked over.

"Good evening, O'Donnell. How are you finding yourself out of jail?"

"Wonderful."

"Nice." The bulldog scanned his card. "Just letting you know that you are restricted to Corneria. This means your destination will only be Corneria."

"Yeah yeah. I know that," Wolf offered his palm, expecting his credentials back. "That Fox is going the same place." He pointed to him with his index finger.

"Okay, sheesh. Also, General Pepper would like to have a word with you, whenever he is available to meet with you," The bulldog grabbed a sticky note, scribbled some letters and numbers onto it and handed it to Wolf.

"Sure." Wolf took the sticky note and rolled it up.

The bulldog gave him back the ID. "have a safe trip."

"Thanks." Wolf grasped the card into his hand before shoving it onto his coat pocket containing his wallet.

 _The nerve of these people…_

He shook his slowly as he reconvened with Fox. Without exchanging any words, they walked forward, one behind another to the long corridor of departure gates until they were out of sight. Fox was only mildly annoyed before shrugging it off easily.

Fox took a seat and yawned whilst Wolf leaned forward against the railing in front of the spanning wall of windows. Outside in the darkness, the Great Fox was parked inside the white rectangle illuminated from the ground. Having only seen the Great Fox for only seconds in dogfights, he was now able to do so in more depth. The back hatch of the mothership slowly opened, pooling a bright while light out of it onto the surroundings.

Wolf unrolled his note, revealing some fairly neat handwriting.

 **Weekdays 7-12, 14-18, 19-22;  
"ends 13-18, 19-21**

 **1 Pepper Circle, New Capital, Corneria City, C00000, Room 4801.**

He spotted his Wolfen, floating about three feet from the ground slowly inching its way into the carriage perfectly, followed by Fox's Arwing.

A familiar synthesizer riff sounded from Fox's comm, causing him to fumble around for it. Once he accepted the call, without a word, he hung up and stood up, stretching and yawning. "let's go, Wolf."

Fox stepped down the stairs, and Wolf silently followed him. The sounds of boots stepping on the marble floors were the only sounds that echoed throughout most of the concourse. Fox bundled up before hanging a left into a gangway that took them to back to the freezing cold tarmac where ten personnel of various canine breeds walked them to the carriage of the mothership, where gales of warm air advected out into the cold. Fox waved to them as the door slowly closed, leaving them in a long, warm metal chamber housing their respective spacefighters.

"Welcome to the Great Fox." Fox announced, and Wolf nodded in response.

"Always wondered what this contained," Wolf walked to his Wolfen, surveying the body of it. There were several outstanding dark marks that were unresolvable, making him tick at the sight of it. Still, the factories on Macbeth did an excellent job putting it back together after all the successive misfortunes. He keenly watched Fox's turn to investigate his Arwing, which was almost immaculate as the burn marks were less pronounced. Wolf thought it through again and again before violently banging his fists on the body of his Wolfen, creating sharp pangs that echoed throughout the chamber.

"Anything wrong?"

He exhaled, leaned forward using his two hands on the Wolfen as support and eyes peering up. "Yes, there's a loose part on the body." He announced as he was trying his best to keep the Venom away from manifestation.

"Well, good thing you aren't flying that in space."

Wolf sighed in relief.

A doorbell sounded from one of the speakers on the ceiling. "Great Fox is ready for takeoff. Please give command on communicator." The robotic voice reverberated like that of a concert hall, causing the latter half of the announcement difficult to distinguish as the words blended together. The subtle whiff of ozone became more pronounced the longer they stayed.

Behind the planes dwarfing the two, Fox made his way to a double door and waited, only to see Wolf making loops around his Wolfen, inspecting every part imaginable. Fox leaned back and closed his eyes for a few minutes, thinking about what he would do to Wolf when they get back on the planet, before the sharp echoes of boots stepping on steel became louder to Fox. When he opened his eyes, Wolf was already about a meter in front.

In complete silence, Fox waved his badge on the black box near the left doorframe, causing the door to unlock with a loud click. Fox, with some effort, pulled the left door open and Wolf was obliged to hold it as Fox entered the next room; he did not expect it to be that heavy.

"That door is getting replaced," Fox remarked as they were detected by the occupancy sensors, causing the lights to shine and the two to squint. The reason for replacement became clear; the bolted sheets of metal were all powdery and rusty. "Don't let the door slam, Wolf."

As the door gave way from the friction in the barrel hinges, Wolf walked over and slowed the door's angular velocity with one hand, however, the door's inertia made it difficult, even for Wolf, which was surprising to Fox. The door managed to shut with a faint thud.

"Thanks. You don't know how many times that door scared our team when it slammed." Fox proceeded to scan his badge again and pressed the up button on the side of the elevator. "Peppy almost got tetanus from after getting an abrasion."

The elevator opened to a more brightly and homey change of pace as the elevator opened its doors, revealing a stylish rectangular living space spanning horizontally. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, providing the bright soft white light that irradiated a large radius. Wolf became breathless as his boot sunk into the carpet, like stepping on cotton. Next to the elevator, on both sides, were empty plant pots with cracked soil. The wall had a simple pattern alternating blue and navy vertical stripes.

"Who got to choose that wall color? Looks nice."

"Falco."

"Ah, Falco…" Wolf clicked his tongue, feeling a bit of a shudder as he remembered the quips Leon would deliver about him.

"This whole place is getting remodeled." Fox spoke out of the blue.

"Why? It's nice enough already."

"Well." Fox pointed at the edge where the wallpaper met the white drop tile ceiling, where some wallpapers were peeling at the seams.

"That's nothing." Wolf declared as he walked left and sat on a wooden chair with generous white paint over it. "Okay. Now this _is_ something." He said as the chair wobbled with his movements.

"Yes, we have to get new chairs. Or if you're Slippy, you saw off a portion of the longer leg."

"Heh, that would be the work of a true cheapskate." Wolf nodded before he stood up and pushed in the chair. "Nice to see something made of wood rather than scrap metal." He cleared his throat. "Tell me. Why did you build this?"

"This is the Foyer. We designed it like this so we feel more at home after each mission."

 _Home._ That word echoed in Wolf's head infinitely. What even is home? "Uh… sure does beat my place," he tried hard not to bring up his bedroom, office, or in fact any room in Sargasso.

Fox noticed the gleam on his fur, causing him to check the thermostat nearby which was showing a comfortable 19°C.

Besides from showcasing the decorations, there wasn't that much more to it. Fox led Wolf to the hallways directly straight from where they arrived. The carpet changed from a beige to a deep red, and the wall pattern was the same throughout the hallway.

"This is the main corridor. At the end is the cockpit."

Wolf simply nodded as he walked quite far apart from Fox, but still close enough to be considered following him, soaking in the sounds of ruffling on the carpet with quiet background mechanical noises coming from the circular concentric vents on the ceiling.

"Hey, you really want to see the cockpit?" Fox hollered, causing Wolf to turn around and realize that he was too many paces in front.

"These are the rooms our team sleeps." The two turned around, facing Slippy Toad's room, with a portrait of him smiling joyfully with his cap on against a felt blue background. Wolf focused at it, and it did not elicit anything terrible about him as to him he was the most benign member on the team. On the door was a sticky note that read "Minor Freon leak."

The next large space, indicative by hard taps on the ground as they stepped, was the dining room and kitchen seamlessly split down the middle with all the counters on one side and a long desk on the other. The counters were sparkly clean, and the stove looked as if it was just bought. However, the microwave was a completely different story.

"This is where we eat and talk… and argue if you're Falco," said Fox as he set the shopping bags on the table and sat on the table rather than the chairs. Yet again, the kitchen was nothing like the one on Sargasso. The floor was linoleum rather than diamond plate steel. However, the linoleum has lost much of its reflectivity, and about a quarter of the ceramic tiles in the kitchen has cracked.

Without a word, Fox showed them the next hallway, with his bedroom on one side and Falco's on the other. Further down was the recreation room, about the same size as the dining and kitchen. It's garnished with tables, sofas, beanbag chairs, bookshelves and some tabletop games, including a large flat-screen TV.

Past another short corridor, it ended at the cockpit with large windows wrapped around the rounded walls. ROB sat in front with all the onboard controls, screens and gauges quantifying the disparity of variables of the mothership. Wolf walked up to the display, first to notice the ambient temperature panel, showing -28°C, which is still better than Corneria City in the winter.

Fox clapped twice, causing Wolf to cock his head towards him. "ROB! Initiate liftoff sequence!"

"Affirmative." Rob turned around and voiced. The PA system came to life. "Starting main engines. Destination KCOR Latitude 43.36°N Longitude 0° ETA 4 hours at 0.75c."

The lights dimmed for a second as a slight rumble began to traverse throughout the mothership, followed by a series of humming noises sounding off a different pitch, some combining to make some low-pitched chords and beats. Once the G-diffuser's output became a maximum, the physical rumbling ceased as the altitude began to increase slowly and accelerating rapidly in the vertical.

In a minute or two, the Great Fox has already ascended into the thermosphere. Another loud rumble began to sound, and the speed on the display began to shoot up to the orders of kilometers per second. The darkness shown on the cockpit window quickly gave way to the familiar mosaic of stars and nebulae.

"Well, we got until midnight," Fox announced as he dropped onto the couch, watching Wolf stare out the cockpit window. Wolf took a seat on the sofa opposite of Fox's, eyes staring at the ceiling and then the ground.

Fox spent the time on his phone, checking his Chirp bulletin. The first result was Peppy's new profile picture of him and his daughter Lucy standing and smiling on the porch of their suburban family home in the Corneria City south suburbs. A smile grew on him as he read the caption: "Retirement has never felt so good!" He chuckled at the fact that Peppy has favorited many of his own posts.

-X-X-X-X-

 _An Hour Later…_

Fox lied down on the same sofa, watching a new episode of _Corneria's Got Talent_ on the big glass screen to the left of him. During the middle of an awkward audition that Fox can't bear to watch, a loud snore broke his concentration as he saw Wolf turn to his side, his phone dropping onto the floor with his headphones still connected. He slowly suspended his right arm down and scooped it from the floor.

He noticed that Tabby Stevens was playing and immediately unplugged the headphones since he did not want to go down another hole he know would have trouble climbing back up. He sat up, clearing his throat a couple of time and coughing.

"How's your sleep, Wolf?"

"Eh… tad better than in Sargasso," he said as he looked around and immediately noticed a small puddle of drool on the leather upholstery. "I could sleep here for days, but you know, that first time getting adjusted thing…"

"I understand." Fox yawned and smacked his mouth. "Want something to drink? We got a lot of drinks in the refrigerator."

"Sure. My throat feels like sandpaper," Wolf stood up, stretching his arms vertically and bending back, causing his spine to give some cracks.

"Let's go to the kitchen then."

The refrigerator on the Great Fox was the side-by-side double door rather than the stacked on in Sargasso. Inside the refrigerator compartment stood bottles of K+, which is a very popular sports drink throughout Corneria. Each of them had a different color and it seemed Fox had all of them from what Wolf has seen before.

"You're the guest. You get first pick," Fox invited.

"That one, and only that one," Wolf, with haste, pointed at the turquoise bottle. Fox handed to Wolf, only to see him hastily pry open the cap. As Fox contemplated at his selection, he unconsciously counted 12 gulps from behind him, and fifteen seconds later, he heard a clang from the garbage bin, a burp and a satisfied yet deep exhale.

"Uhh… Would you like another?" Fox turned his head back to the satisfied lupine.

"Mmmm… No. I am good. Thanks."

"Okay…" Fox slowly picked up the green bottle and closed the door. "How did you drink like that?"

"If you ever shotgunned a beer, you'll know." Wolf shrugged as he went to grab a seat as Fox felt even more confused.

Fox twisted open the cap and tilted his head back. Once he began as attempt, he immediately stopped as the sugary green liquid began to spill down the sides of his maw, soiling his outfit and ponding the floor

"Oh pup…" Wolf shook his head, chuckled, leaned over and grabbed five sheets of paper towels to give to Fox.

"Aah… Won't be needing this spacesuit anyways after this," Fox declared as he bent down to clean the floors.

"Hey, you and me both. They weigh like twenty pounds with all the lead in them."

"Twenty what?"

"Oh, right… dammit, what's that in kilos…? fourteen kilos?"

"Sounds about right," Fox Nodded.

 _Wait what the hell is he…_ Fox began to undo his suit and Wolf promptly pulled out his phone and faced to his side. To his surprise, he had on a plain white tank top and black nylon shorts.

"Could've warned me, Fox." Wolf lectured as he placed his phone in his pocket. It was certainly _new_ to him seeing Fox wearing anything else than his usual suit, besides the coat he wore on Fichina.

"I gotta go take this back into my room," Fox felt an aura of hesitation, but he continued anyways, "you are welcome to take a look."

"Fine with me," Wolf shrugged and stood.

The lupine followed him to his door in-between the rec room and the kitchen, and he immediately noticed the youthful portrait of Fox affixed right above his nameplate. The timestamp on the corner indicated that it was taken in 1996.

"I felt I looked my best back then."

Wolf could still recall that exact face appearing on his comm, a face that used to incite bitterness.

Fox waved his badge near the block on the door, giving off a beep and a click. Fox slid the door to the left and tinkered with some panel on the right wall to gradually illuminate the recessed LED lamps, giving a soft yellow color to the room that's pasted with a yellow wallpaper. Overall it resembled Wolf's bedroom on Sargasso, but much more cluttered and a tad bigger in real estate. Fox placed his soiled outfit in a black duffel bag before stepping out of the room.

"It's nothing special, really," Fox shrugged.

After a few seconds of silence and deep thinking on Fox's part whilst watching Wolf working the control panel, he hesitantly began, "hey Wolf, I'll let you stay in my room for a while. Just don't touch any of my stuff."

"Oh…" Wolf looked towards the vulpine. "I won't. _Promise_."

"Okay," Fox nodded, cracking a small smile as he walked away.

Wolf continued to investigate the control panel Fox used to turn on the lights. After a moment of droning tapping on the glass screen, he found the gold.

 _"_ huuuuh… ah! _"_ he smiled as he found a slider that changed the light's color, even including the option to cycle at a fast rate. "That is neat…" he whispered as he tapped on a button on the corner which took him to another menu that prompted him to pair a phone. Hopeful and hyped after pairing his phone successfully, and the next screen introduced a set of media controls.

"Oh… oh! This is…" he laughed as he pressed the big play button on it, and immediately the sound of drums and a bright electric guitar solo came through the ceiling speakers, causing Wolf to crack a record-breaking grin.

Fox, walking around in the kitchen, cleaning up the rest of his mess, heard electric guitars resonating through the main hallways. Fox remember hearing this song once on Corneria when his father drove him around. He chucked the paper towels in the trash and walked over to see Wolf with his eyes closed, firmly holding and passionately shredding and picking at his air guitar to the guitar solo, all of which made Fox chuckle, almost to the point of loudly bursting out in laugher.

Once the song ended, Wolf immediately cocked his eyes towards Fox and recoiled.

"Oh no no no. You did not see that!" A heavy blush came to Wolf, violently shaking his head, ashamed that he did not close the door.

"Yes I did. Never knew you had the rock star in you."

Wolf stood silently, unable to form sentences or even words amidst his chagrin, but it took him a while.

"Uhh… yes?" He scratched his head.

"Don't sweat it. I do the same thing, but in the cockpit. Hey, if you like that kind of music, we got a jukebox there."

"Really?" The lupine's ears perked.

"Definitely," Fox nodded, and Wolf followed Fox to the cockpit. Tucked away in the back corner was a shiny jukebox. Fox reached to the back of the machine and flicked a metal switch, illuminating the pink and orange neon lights embroidered on the outer edge and the incandescent bulbs inside a compartment meant for storing vinyl LPs. Wolf placed his two hands on it and scanned it up and down multiple times, smelling the characteristic wood smell of old electronics; Fox could already tell by the way his tail was wagging.

"Is this yours, Fox?" Wolf turned to him.

"No… It's Peppy's." Fox replied, trying to complete the mental images of Wolf in that state. "Wait… where are all the records… this thing is meant to play records."

"Unfortunately Peppy took them all back to his house after they left."

"Well, it's useless then." Wolf shrugged and turned to the hall and stopped. "Does this at least play music from a phone?"

"Yes, that's what I was getting to."

"Oh so it's not truly from the old days."

"Oh it so is," Fox affirmed, caressing his hands on top of the jukebox. "Using the magic of Slippy Toad and we got this." He pulled out his phone and pressed a red button on the front, and instantly, music filled throughout the halls, the intermediate rooms and the cockpit through the periodically mounted ceiling speakers. The song had a catchy pop beat to it with some very familiar vocals.

"Wait…" Wolf stared up at the ceiling, looking at one of the round speaker grilles. "Isn't this the Alley Boys?"

A smile formed on Fox, "I'm surprised you knew it!"

Wolf chuckled, never expecting Fox to listen to boy bands. "Who doesn't know it? You could be far off at the edge of the Lylat and still hear it from whatever, from Aquas to Zoness."

They sat on the opposite sofas, as the song went on, with Fox desperately resisting to sing as he squirmed in his seat. When the song faded out, the second song began with a drum beat and proceeding to a slow reggae-type rock. Wolf immediately perked his eyes, noticing that the songs Fox had so far were songs he heard as well, but this one he heard when he was a mere toddler.

Whilst Fox was completely lost in the music, Wolf snuck over to the refrigerator to get a violet colored sports drink, with the flavor being blackcurrant. Once open, he took a sip, smacked his mouth and then an enormous gulp followed that left the bottle half full.

Back at the cockpit, with the music being a bright guitar instrumental, Wolf saw Fox with his eyes closed, laying on the sofa, pretending to casually play the guitar.

Wolf sat in his sofa, placed the bottle on the floor and contently joined in for this song and the next ones, where they played a variety of air instruments.

~X~X~X~X~

With music still playing, Wolf on the verge of falling asleep again, and Fox browsing his phone, the two have been silent for the past hour, peacefully jamming to the music.

A ping from Fox's phone snapped Wolf from his comatose state. Fox glanced at the message.

{ **Falco (23:10)** : i hate this storm damn thunder felt like earthquake}

{ **Fox** : How bad is it}

{ **Falco (23:33)** : cant see shit out the window}

Fox checked the weather app to confirm, and it was correct; the bad news was that the rain was forecasted to go on all night long, adding the task of finding his umbrella from his room to his to-do list.

Once he put his phone away, he looked towards the opposite side where Wolf layer on the sofa, looking quite miserable as he swiped left on his phone periodically, guessing that he was looking at photos.

The music immediately faded, followed by an announcement chime, "ETA 1 Hour," ROB's voice chimed in, immediately snapping Wolf completely out of his comatose state with the feeling of something grabbing hold of his chest.

"Hey, we haven't eaten anything we bought from the store yet, Wolf," Fox suggested, and Wolf was quick to respond, accepting anything to take his mind off the current subject.

"Oh, yes. What do you want to eat first?" He sat up.

"Let's eat the apple. It's more perishable than the rest."

Fox arrived there first, grabbing the two bags and handing the considerably heavy one to Wolf.

The both bit into the apple at the same time, and both of their eyes widened, with Fox nodding.

"Wow, looks like I am going to have a dentist appointment tomorrow," Wolf remarked as he bit another large chunk off.

"I actually do," Fox replied. "16 o'clock."

"Have fun with that."

"I'll try."

After a minute of silence, Wolf yawned again, but this time it was blatant enough for Fox to witness everything, even down to the smacking. "Where can I nap for an hour?"

"Well… you can nap in my quarters. I won't be use—"

"Thanks. I'll make my way." Wolf stood and walked over to Fox's room, immediately closing the door. Fox shrugged and went back to the cockpit to watch a rerun of _Corneria's Got Talent_.

Meanwhile, Wolf plopped onto the bed, not expecting it to be that bouncy. He sat up and moved up and down.

He inched over to the nightstand where a turn of a knob on the desk lamp brought it to shine at full warmth and brightness. Immediately there was a letterbox photo of James and Fox in front of an Arwing kept in a clean wooden photo frame, comparing the two, the both really meshed together in terms of piloting.

 _After all the times I harassed him about his father… where is_ ** _his_** _animosity?_

Next to the frame was a substantially large white bottle. He turned it around and to find out that it was 10 mg pills of melatonin, and surprisingly, it contained 400 pills and it was quite light as he picked up. The same meds he had contained only 100 pills. He could not believe that he is learning the weirdest things about his rival, including an almost empty bottle of naproxen sodium.

He laid on the bed, facing towards the ceiling, where the lightbulbs blinded him depending on where his head was on the pillow. He got up to turn the lights all off, and turned off the lamp, leaving behind a faint blue glow coming from the shades. Getting up again, he checked the view behind the shade and the sight of blue, white and green promptly repelled him to the bed.

Meanwhile, in the cockpit, Fox was vocalizing some instrumental playing from his phone.

"ETA 40 minutes. Entering Cornerian atmosphere. New weather report available."

A string of green text appeared on the display. To Fox, it was always a clutter of letters and numbers.

KCOR 252356Z 26013G18MPS 3KM OVC017 +TSRA 23/21 A0083 RMK TSB01 FRQ LTGICCG N-S TS ALQD MOV E T02320209 FROPA P0010 60019

"ROB, can I get an _actual_ weather report?" Fox asked with his arms crossed.

"Yes, Fox. Getting Data…" ROB's eyes pulsed for five seconds. "Corneria City as of 2356Z… Thunderstorms with rain and wind… 23 degrees. Relative humidity 89 percent. Instrumental flight rules… Clouds overcast… Cloud ceiling 1700 meters… West winds 11 meters per second gusting to 18. Sea level pressure 100.83 kilopascals and rising…"

"OK ROB stop, don't need all the other stuff."

"Affirmative." ROB turned towards the cockpit window, showcasing the magnificent blue glow of Corneria below before they entered the dark side of the planet, showcasing the blotches of lights coming from civilization down below. Fox plopped back onto the sofa, exhaling slowly, trying his hardest to think of things to do once on the ground, but ending up with a pile of anxiety, with the main one being paying the massively outstanding amounts of instalments for the Great Fox's mortgage.

~X~X~X~X~

After 30 minutes of tossing and turning, Wolf found no avail in calming himself; instead, his heart gradually beat faster and harder to the point that it could be heard within his ear. He sat up for once, headed to the door and pressed flipped a lever under the main doorknob. His face was becoming hot, and his ears felt that they were on fire. He grabbed a nearby water bottle and pat some water on it.

What if the public accuses him of a crime he didn't commit and gets arrested even under a false accusation just because of his stigma?

Questions like that sprinted through his mind, and in a sudden, the background humming noises was immediately replaced by silence, and the thoughts became louder. The only ambient sound was the rain softly pattering onto the window.

"We're here!" He heard Fox's muffled voice. Wolf's free hands slowly clenched into a tight fist.

"Wolf?"

Three gentle knocks.

"Wolf?"

* * *

End Notes:

If there is a reference to something or some concepts need explaining, I will put them down here.

\- Corneria city will likely follow a typical East Asian city model, where there is no true downtown and CBDs are spread out in clusters.

\- For Corneria, I will treat the culture, pop stars, musicians, etc. to be a mirror of ours. Just think of them as cats, dogs, etc. I will try my best to give them a parody name. If I can't, they will be named as-is. For example, I mentioned Tabby Stevens, which is Cat Stevens. Song titles will be as-is.

\- The reggae rock music is _D'yer Maker_ by Led Zeppelin, and that guitar piece Wolf was shredding to was _Eruption_ by Van Halen.

\- c is the speed of light. 0.75c means 3/4 of the speed of light, about 225 million m/s or 503 million mph if you're Wolf.

\- Melatonin is a hormone that is produced in response to the lack of light, it is the hormone that helps with falling asleep. 10mg is pretty extreme.

\- Naproxen Sodium is an analgesic, branded as Aleve.

\- K+ is the Cornerian analogue to Gatorade or Powerade. K+ is the ionic form of potassium, and it is a major electrolyte in living organisms.

\- The large string of letters and numbers is the METAR code. The conventions are based off the METARs used in the US, but with some minor changes since Corneria doesn't use imperial units. For those who don't know what METAR is, it is a string of letters and numbers that encodes the weather conditions at an airport and airfield. Being able to read and decode them is an integral part of piloting.

\- 2356Z is the same as 2356UTC. Since Corneria City is the capital of the planet, why not put the UTC there? Z-time, or Zulu time, is the same thing as UTC but used in many meteorological applications.

\- C00000 is the nation's postcode system. With all of the zeros, it would make sense for the main national, or even planetary administrative center.


	6. Dog Without a Bone

**VI – Dog Without a Bone**

 **Author's Note**

Hey, since I am on fall break, I finally have the time to write.

This chapter will be more _worldbuilding_ , because they are on Corneria and I must do this thing to describe how everything looks like at some points.

Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

* * *

Fox stood by the elevator, tapping his feet. He pulled out his phone a couple of times to check that he was waiting for almost twenty minutes.

Fox's communicator sounded, and he answered in pure reflex, without even checking the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Fox!" A familiar voice sounded through the earpiece.

Fox gasped, "Bill! How you've been!?" Fox's voice partially reverberated, even with a carpeted floor.

"Nothin' much. We're waitin' for ya out the Great Fox. What's takin' ya so long bro?"

"Well you tell me. Since when you did the night shift?"

"Since Monday, and today is supposedly the last day."

"But why though?"

"Some guy went on vacation in the deserts."

"Wow, that's brutal, in the summer too? Jeez."

After a short pause, and still no sight of Wolf in the hallway, "Whatcha planning on doin during your break?" Bill hastily asked.

"I have no idea what to do myself, but I already have obligations to fulfil."

"That's no fun. Like what?"

"Dentists, and I think a dinner with the crew a day or two later."

"Yikes, the dentist, not fun smelling tooth dust, and that damn toothpaste tastes like… whatever that is that shit's nasty."

"I know… better get through that sooner than later."

"Okay, Fox. I am ready." A hoarse voice came from behind, and it was Wolf wearing Fox's old rain jackets that he has given him permission to borrow, complete with the hood up. Wolf retrieved his bag of food they bought on Fichina and sulked his way to Fox, staring upwards at the ceiling tiles which many of them were yellowed.

"Right, Bill, we're coming down." Fox spoke into the comm.

"Okay!" Bill's voice blasted though the output speaker on Fox's comm, loud enough to be heard by Wolf, which replied with him gritting his teeth followed by a quiet growl.

The elevator opened immediate upon the button presses on the side panel and Fox promptly stepped in; with a few seconds lag, Wolf slowly and quietly stepped in with tightly clenched fists, but to Fox his face did not present anything troubling.

The 10-second elevator trip was spent in pure silence like last time when they rode up. When the door opened, the lights from within the elevator shone on the rusted doors. Fox pushed on the left door, which let out a shrill screech as it opened, flinching the two, with Fox to the greatest extent.

"Where's that can of Water Displacer when you need it?" Wolf remarked.

"Slippy's got them, but he never bothered to use it for this door."

"Why?"

"He just told us to use the other door."

"Sure…" Wolf responded as he followed Fox towards the place where the two parked their respective spacefighters and where strong gusts of wind filled the cavity.

Wolf encountered esoteric sensation as the scent of rain and moisture fed into his nose, a thing he hasn't encountered for heavens know how long. On the other side of the opening stood a canine with small droopy ears, and unexpectedly Fox dashed towards him and the two hugged.

"Bill!" His voice echoed, and that was it before their mouths moved without any audible noise.

Wolf leaned against the wall, preparing himself as his mind began to work overtime again.

 _Panther…_

 _Leon…_

 _…_

"Well how was the three days in space, bud?" Wolf heard faintly through his right ear amidst the roar of the Corneria City cityscape that he missed deep down.

"Boring as usual, so glad being back here again."

They kept chattering as Wolf slowly snuck up on them.

"Whoa, Fox! Dude! How did you get _him_ on there!?" Bill pointed at Wolf, and Wolf's ears immediately drooped.

"Very long story, Bill. If I told you it, it would qualify is a 1-hour documentary."

Wolf gritted his teeth yet again; the constant bruxism wasn't helping at keeping his fangs sharp as before.

"I understand. Maybe on the drive back we can talk about it. I'll go move my car and we will get going."

Bill took off full speed to the parking garage. Fox looked around slowly.

"This doesn't seem like KCOR to me… it's lacking color…"

"I don't know what KCOR is or even looks like anymore, Fox," Wolf sternly replied.

"Where are we then…" Fox pulled up his phone and opened the maps application. "Ah, we are at KCRM" he said before putting his phone away.

"Okay, stop using these alphabet soup. Say I am a person operating on half of a brain cell and just use simple layman terms! Do you think I remember those codes? Do you think I memorized the whole periodic table? Do you think I know pi to the 450th digit!?" His voice got louder and became gruffer.

"No…"

"Well start speaking normally! I know you're associated with the feds and probably talk like one, and I am not even close to a fed; the feds want ME."

"okay okay…" Fox's voice dimished. "This is the military airport in the northern edge of the district."

"That's more like it… _pup._ " Wolf faced away and imagined spitting out the last word in sheer grumpiness.

The last time Wolf saw the Corneria City International Airport was almost exactly like this, but it made sense that wasn't due to the constant stream of jet traffic coming from one end to the other on the runways.

The sounds of jet engines, the sight of planes taking off and landing all seen behind a crosshatched iron fence… It was all too familiar.

Fox took a quick glance at Wolf, who was staring up towards the grey homogeneous layer of low clouds. Droplets of rain began to fall one-by-one before slowly intensifying to a steadier precipitation, also something Wolf hasn't seen in an eternity. A light came from their right, blinding the two as the white sedan pulled up in front of them. Bill got out of the car and leaned on the door.

"For goodness sakes Bill you trying to fry us with the brights?" Fox bickered.

"Oh I have my brights on?" Bill ducked into the car and flicked a switch, causing the headlights to dim. "Thanks for catching that. If it were on a highway, I would have gotten nine traffic citations."

"I'm riding shotgun, Wolf."

"Yeah whatever." Wolf glanced at the car for a longer time as he remembered the boxy car he had a long time ago and eventually put away for years, hoping that it could be sold when he finds it again.

The two slipped into the seat and closed the doors altogether.

Bill rolled down the window. "Hey buddy! You going or nah?" He shouted.

 _Buddy…?_ Wolf obliged and opened the rear doors and took the seat, even securing the seatbelt.

The back door of the Great Fox slowly raised to a close as Fox took his semi-final glances as the raindrops accumulated on the window, distorting the image.

"Ready to go? I'm clocked out so I will drop you off at the university metro station? I live in Colburn, just east of University North."

"Uhh… sure…" Fox answered and turned to Wolf.

"Whatever works, as long as I make it back."

"We can go then."

"Awesome, let's hit it!" Bill, in one rhythmic motion, shifted the transmission to drive and navigated along the tarmac to the entrance gate, where they stopped and waited until the red and white stick rose up.

The gate transitioned to a small two-lane road heavily lined with trees, with the only lights being the headlights shining forward. Bill flicked a switch and objects afar could then be seen, he maneuvered his right hand to a dial which brought the speakers to life, playing some sort of house music with a very relaxing vibe. The music began to fade out, and once it did, beeps began to sound by the second like a race countdown, ending with a higher pitched long beep.

"It is now 1 o'clock," A male voice sounded with intense bass coming from the speakers. To Wolf, Panther immediately came to his mind. "You are listening to House 102.7FM, your source for the best house tracks. This station is currently in automatic mode."

"Huge back to school discounts happing NOW—" Bill instinctively pressed a button, which transitioned to a bright rock song that both captured a both canine's attention.

"This song speaks to me so much…" Bill commented.

"Yup, everyone loves Friday," Fox replied.

The car came to yet another halt at a checkpoint; immediately the gate lifted, and the journey continued on the same road for a while.

"So how's Peppy doin?" Bill opened up.

"He's doing quite fine. The retirement's treating him very well," Fox answered.

"That's awesome to hear. Say, how's his medical conditions?"

"Oh, he's way better than before," fox cleared his throat. "He's off the pills now, but the spikes do happen from time to time rather than every week on the Great Fox."

"Ah."

"So Krystal and Slippy taught his daughter Lucy on how to take blood pressure manually with those old things with a column of mercury in the middle."

The car stopped at a red light.

"They still sell them things?"

"No, but Peppy has them. Hell, even on the Great Fox we used mercury thermometers. They take longer but damn are they accurate."

"Do you still stick em up your ass?"

"What!?" Fox recoiled. "No! Hell no! I am not 1 year old anymore!"

"Haha! Just joking! Surprised you still have that reaction witcha." Bill chuckled and Wolf could help but silently laugh. Fox grew red and shrunk to the window. Bill pulled out his phone and placed it on the mount on top of the center dashboard. He opened the maps app and typed in some destination rather quickly.

"Take a left, then keep going straight for 3 kilometers before merging onto Sixth Ring Road," a female voice announced from the phone.

"There's a Sixth Ring Road now?" Fox asked

"Just opened a week ago. Funny thing is that on day one there was a 1-kilometer gridlock on that same day. That's Corneria City infrastructure for ya!"

"At least they are building a lotta things after the Aparoids."

Wolf found himself in contemplation since the last time he was here there were only three ring roads in the city and it was easy to memorize where everything was relative to each of the highways.

Once the green light filled the interior of the car, Bill hung a left onto another road that was the same as before, but this time there were bright street lights on the side passing by periodically.

When the song ended, another set of loud and cheesy commericials began to blast out of the speakers, prompting Bill to press another one of the preset buttons, which brought the radio to a station playing some lounge jazz.

After several minutes of endless foliage passing by, a few green signs began passing by, signaling the impending highway entrances. A section of the road split off as the remaining road sloped up, revealing the monstrous 8-lane highway (excluding shoulder), brightly lit by the street lamps and the newly implemented shining lane markings. Given how late it was, there were still a fair number of cars and trucks zooming by.

The straightaway became a tightly-rounded curve, and after rounding the curve they were met with a gate. Bill quickly looked to the back and immediately stopped the car, hurling the passengers forward.

"Oh shit! Fox!"

"What is it!?" Fox became as equally anxious for no reason.

"In the glovebox, grab this white piece of plastic and give it to me."

Fox quickly opened the glovebox, containing a mess of papers from car checkups and tests, but the white transponder was found easily. Fox handed it to Bill and he placed it above the main dashboard. "Thanks, bro."

Bill drove slowly to the gate, which immediately opened upon entering and the screen showing the license plate and the amount of funds left on his account. Bill pressed on the gas, looking to his right as the lane slowly met the highway and diminished, leaving him between two cars in front and behind him travelling the speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour.

"In 18 kilometers, take exit 103 to Colburn."

 _Colburn_ … The name ran into Wolf's head. _Where are they getting these names from…?_ But the thoughts were immediately defeated by the experience of riding on the highway. It immediate surpassed the feeling of flying in the Wolfen since there was so much to process as he read every sign passing by and the license plates of the passing cars, also noting the colors and makes, and even as observing how fast each white line passed by.

"Holy crap, this is _wide…"_ Fox marveled as the space of the road seemed to stretch from one end to the other compared to seeing it from above.

"Yup, and it still gets jammed every day." Bill replied. "Hey, what's troubling ya, bud?"

"Oh, just about the Great Fox and its still-monstrous mortgage."

"Right. Nothing's more depressing than taking about mortgages but go ahead."

"I just feel… Peppy is paying the greatest share of it… I just feel bad for him that the mortgage is going to gouge his retirement funds dry, and somehow I have to contribute."

"So maybe get a job?"

"Wow, thanks _dad_."

Wolf's ears perked and turned his head further away from his field of view.

"I am serious, you should have the best resumé…" Bill raised his hand and waved it in the air, "'Star Fox, team leader!' Instant hire! If they don't hire you then they must be stupid!"

"I'll see about it. I just want a week or two of rest."

"Ahh, just like the academy days, the feeling when you get on break…"

"Exactly, I want exactly _that_ …"

"Well, sorry, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do. I can't simply pave down the yellow brick road for a debt free life."

Meanwhile in the backseat, Wolf simply found it amusing to hear Fox complain about the smallest things, but he crossed his fingers in the vain hope that they don't ask him about a single thing as he watched the bright, flashy and decorative high-rises pass by, along with some business complexes studded in-between them.

Wolf felt the car decelerate as the highway became further and increasing in height before merging with the road running parallel below and stopping at an intersection.

"Here's Colburn, one of the newer 'satellite' CBDs. Fun fact, a lot of these apartments are only half-occupied."

"Why is that?"

"They are expensive as hell and it's too far from the core city. I mean, I live in one of them, mostly because of federal discounts of being a member of the armed forces."

When the light turned green, they hung a right onto a four-lane road separated down the middle by fences and flower boxes, lined with evenly spaced trees on the sides. Bill drove for a little before turning right to a side street to what is apparently an open entrance to a park.

"Right, so here is where we part," Bill said as he shifted the car to park and got out in the light rain. Bill made his way over to Fox's side, and that's when Wolf stepped out of the car, the raindrops pelting and bouncing off the hydrophobic poncho. He observed the two canines exchange some more unintelligible words before they hugged. Bill got back into his car and drove away, leaving the two in silence and lost.

"Couldn't you just told that chump to take us to our homes?"

"Chump!? He is my buddy from academy days!"

"Yeah, yeah, that aside, you're not answering my question."

Fox found himself growling silently, but he did not want to go down that rabbit hole again, especially when he's unarmed and such. "I live down south, which is about 40km down, so I want to spare him the effort."

"Ugh…" Wolf complained; it soon clicked since it would be a detriment on himself rather than on Fox or Bill.

The two looked around and saw a bright arched entrance leading underground; beside it stood a pole with a green lit cube with the number 2 on it.

"There it is, Wolf. We should go." Fox walked over, and Wolf soon followed silently. Before they went down, they glanced at the illuminated map by the escalators. It only took Fox about three seconds to identify a route, but for Wolf, three minutes have elapsed, and he was becoming increasingly flummoxed.

The most recent subway map in his head only had three colored lines, and the one he was looking at had way too many colored lines for his eyes to distinguish, and line sprawled out to an extreme extent. It also didn't help that the map was not to scale.

Wolf's breaths quickened as he began to shudder.

He knew the location of his cottage up north, but the address of his old home was proving to be a hard retrieval. Two minutes elapsed, and the only name he could conjure up was Roaring Springs, which was the name of the park that was nearest to his old home. Following the green line southeast, he eventually found a stop with the same name, after counting 27 stations.

The two followed each other down the stairs onto the clean mezzanine level of the station with the platform below visible on each side. Wolf first looked for a concierge, but no one was there, and apparently all the kiosks that were open were automated. He saw Fox simply grabbing his phone and entered through the turnstiles effortlessly.

Wolf slowly walked over before stopping to realize that none of them had a slot for cash. He nervously looked towards Fox, who checked his phone before turning to Wolf, looking puzzled as he tapped randomly on the screen. He took a deep breath with his eyes closed.

"Fox… I need your phone again…" He reluctantly requested.

Fox, with some insecurity, took out his phone and opened his banking app to generate a QR code for his credit card and gave it to Wolf. He plopped it under the red scanner before it beeped and turned green and spat out a card, which he used to finally gain entrance and give the phone back to Fox.

Down at the platform level, Fox sat on the metal benches as he watched his reflection on the cleanly glazed marble ground, but Wolf's head was all around. The modern interior design, the reflective walls, and even the glass doors separating the platform from the tracks, everything was opposite of squalor in Wolf's head based on the previous time he rode the subway.

Wolf leaned on the glass panel as they waited and listened to the soft jazz playing from the intercom.

After five minutes of silence, a Wolf felt a rumble on his back as a sleek white train with a green stripe across its length slowed down and came to a halt. All the doors slid open at once. Wolf darted into the train first and quickly grabbed a seat, followed by Fox casually seating across from him, comatose.

Wolf looked at all angles. The seats were glossy new, the whole paneling was cleanly white, and what exhilarated him the most was that the train did not even have a driver, just a big window at the front displaying the tunnel with the endless line of fluorescent lights illuminating the track. With Fox almost asleep, Wolf slowly got out of his seat and sat in the front, legs propped up.

Some soft beeps sounded, followed by a slam, and soon enough the train was in motion with the gentle acceleration hum.

The PA system chimed. "Welcome to metro line 2. This train is bound for Corneria New Capital. Next stop is University North. Doors will open on the left."

As the train was in motion, Wolf became comforted as he felt he was flying through the tunnel with the refreshing underground wind blowing at and over him, hypnotized by the line of lights passing by, whilst Fox had his head drooped down and eyes shut as he looked back. The train was almost vacant, as he could see all the way to the back, which was something he could not do with the older trains.

…

About 10 stations and not many passengers later, the train travelled uphill and out of the ground, revealing the still-bright cityscape. Wolf took his phone out and plugged his earbuds in and played fitting music to match the dynamic view of high-rises, business parks, wide roads and highways all passing by, occupying Wolf with all its details as his eyes were darting left and right. He looked back to Fox, sitting alone and head leaning on the side of the seat, which was still great news.

…

"We are now at Roaring Springs… Doors will open on the right side. To exit, press the flashing button on the door. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

Wolf checked his phone, surprised that it didn't take as long as he expected it to be as the train approached the station and slowed down. Wolf stood up, straightened his poncho and walked to the nearest door, next to where Fox was still out. Once the train became a standstill, the button began to flash, and when pressed, the door opened.

Wolf flashed a gentle smile. "See ya, Fox," he said as he exited the train.

Fox snapped from his comatose state after hearing Wolf's indiscernible voice, head pivoting left and right to find Wolf absent. He looked back at the station platform to find Wolf descending the stairs.

 _Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act!_

The warning beeps began to sound, and Fox sprung himself out of the seat and ran, and then heard both doors slam behind him, followed by the hum of the train accelerating off and then the quiet ambience of late-night Corneria City.

Casually walking down the stairs to ground level, he surveyed the premise and eventually found the only person he could find walking out into the cityscape, but he stopped as he stepped foot onto the concrete, looking left and right, but ultimately chose to go left. Fox took the exit on the opposite side, and they ended up walking along on the opposite sidewalks, separated by a road with a large median, umbrellaed by train viaduct above with support beams sticking out of the grassy median.

To the right of Fox were brick buildings with small establishments that he has never heard of, many of them seemed family-run and all of them were obviously closed with steel shutters. Stuck in-between those establishments were lit apartment entrances tucked in alcoves, and to his immediate left were rows of cars, motorbikes, and their hovering variants. On the far other side, he saw his target stopping and walking occasionally whilst surveying the area.

Fox continued his walk until he encountered a brightly lit convenience store stocked with colorful snack items. A poster was pasted on the door advertising for 1-dollar hot croissant sandwiches for breakfast. The flaky texture of the croissant, the melted cheese, and that slice of ham was enough to get Fox immediately salivate.

Rough footsteps from behind became louder.

"Hey."

Fox seized up and stiffly turned his head to see Wolf, not as pissed as he was expected to be.

"Aren't you supposed to be on your way home?"

"Uhh… yeah."

"Why did you follow me then?" Wolf shrugged as he towered over Fox.

Fox sweat heavily as his breathing was close to achieving hyperventilation. It remained like that for three minutes, as Wolf stood there, periodically peeking at his surroundings.

"I guess… I wanted to check out the neighborhood."

"Really… I was thinking we could do that in the distant future."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes… But I must well… get settled here," Wolf's voice started to break a bit. "Anyways, I am going to buy some things in here. Don't come in. Having both of us together may raise some brows." Wolf walked in the store, sounding off a chime.

"Ah! Wolf, yer back!" An elderly voice sounded from inside.

Fox walked backwards to lean on a wall, and unexpected, it took him 15 minutes as quiet clamor came from inside the store.

When the chimes sounded again, Wolf walked out with yet another full bag. "Wow… did not know the same guy worked here since I was a wee kid."

"So this is your neighborhood?"

"Well, yes… Why did you think I got off here? My dad would always hand me some money and send me down to this store to buy soda and chips."

In the silence, the two continued to walk south until they met an intersection. Wolf looked at the street signs.

"That's it, Godley Street. Boy have things changed so much…" It now all made sense to Fox when he saw his erratic motions on the other side of the street. "This bridge thing wasn't there back then, and this street used to have lots of flowers on the median."

They crossed the road to the south sidewalk along Godley street. Wolf looked up at the first building and stopped as he was paralyzed by the nostalgia of the street, the building, and everything that was associated with it. He was able to spot the exact window of his room, and then every little detail became crystal clear.

Wolf then approached the alcove.

"Is this—"

"Yes." Wolf took a deep breath. "Yes, Fox. Even though I did not want you to follow me here, but yes. This is where I live."

"Well… I…"

"It's good, but only on one condition." He took another deep breath. "Please do not tell anyone about this place. Do not tell Peppy, Falco, whoever that toad guy is, and Bill, or anyone else except for anyone who might know it already. Just keep this between us. If you violate it… Well, let's say we will be back in old cutthroat roots again."

Fox hastily nodded. "Yes, Wolf."

"You sure… promise?" Wolf lend out a hand.

"Promise." Fox firmly grasped Wolf's hand and held it there, shaking it up and down slowly before gently letting go.

"Alright, go home now. You look like you need sleep from what I have seen on the train."

"Yes, I was pretty out on there." Fox looked at the panel. "What room is your room?"

Wolf wanted to groan. "402."

"Alright. Thanks again for keeping me company," Fox smiled.

"Don't mention it." Wolf proceeded to take off the poncho, rolled it up and offered it to Fox. "Thanks for the funds you covered."

Fox nodded. "You can keep that. I have a new one."

"Okay," Wolf clutched it in his elbow as he got his keys. "You should get home now. You were out on the train."

"Yeah I should. See you around?"

"Sure," Wolf politely nodded. "See you around."

Fox slowly walked off.

"What are the odds…" Wolf whispered to himself as he jimmied the keys into the new lock and to his surprise, opened the metal door. The only difference was that the concrete walls were all painted white to look more eye-friendly, which was a pleasant step-up from the grey eyesore, and a better step-up was the elevator at the end of the hallway, which did not exist back then.

As he travelled up the elevator, thought after thought travelled through every neuron, images of him from his career flashed before his eyes, all culminating to what happened just one minute ago.

The door opened. Wolf slowly stepped out to face the stairwell, becoming even more paralyzed.

Tremors took partial control of his hands as he raised the key and stuck it in the door. Slowly and carefully, the lock gave, and the door opened. A choking sensation seized him.

It smelled different. Clean linen.

With a flip of the light switch, the round light fixture illuminated white after flashing about ten times, expecting that his electricity would not even work at all.

The living room was exactly set up as he remembered. Small circle table in the middle, clotheslines by the window, yellow sofa and TV on opposite walls.

Underneath the circle table was the yellow mat, with a dried-up drop of blood on there from one of his nosebleeds.

The floor was the same hardwood, and he even strangely remembered some of the dents and scratch patterns that were made.

The TV was one of those incredible bulky pieces of plastic with a glass screen. With a press of the power button, a click sounded off, and the screen began to fuzz as the snowy static came to life on the screen, accompanied by a soft white noise.

He placed all his goods on the kitchen counter, which at least was sparkly clean. The refrigerator was deemed to be in working order as he placed all the perishables in there.

The old gas stove was still there, but no microwave.

He took off his boots and stripped down to his mercenary suit and carried it to the master bedroom. There, in the wardrobe were some clothes that he never knew he had at some point. One of the clothes was a black tank top of his favorite band back then, which was symbolized by four strange insignias.

"Corneria City 1981.6.14" a faded white text read below the said insignias, and the back had the sequence of song titles.

He took off his mercenary suit and put on the tank top, which hugged him tightly, but the long white pajama pants compensated with the roominess for his lower limbs. He walked to the window where under it stood a radiator, opened it up and peeked his head out, shocked that the rail viaduct was right below him, and at that instance a train passed by rather quietly, but it still rumbled a bit. A moment later a car alarm went off, and it's those alarms that change sounds every five seconds.

 _Guess I am back…_

The next room he wandered into was the room of tiles and porcelain, all sparkly clean and fragrant. He turned the knob for cold water, some of it came out before it produced nothing.

He sighed as he turned off the lights and left the room, but there was one more closed door that he glared at and walked back into the master bedroom. He plopped onto the queen-sized bed, slid under the covers, and let his mind roam, thinking about that culminating uncanny yet unexpectedly positive interactions he had with Fox. The thoughts built up like dominos.

Just alike any magnificent structure built with dominoes, all it takes is a small perturbation to have it come crashing down…

* * *

After 5 more stations on the same train, and transferring to another that took another 7, Fox, at last made it to his small terraced house in the near-suburbs as the time reached 2:30.

Immediately, he took off his coat, boots and extra layers, leaving him in a white tank top and black basketball shorts. In the kitchen, he quickly placed the things he bought in the fridge and immediately went off to the bedroom upstairs.

He plopped onto the bed, looking at his phone. He brought up a notepad app and typed in the address of Wolf's place, with some degree of uncertainty.

With the phone on the nightstand, he glossed over his interactions with Wolf, and how strangely he has changed, and disconcerted that he did not die the times he thought he was going to, but shifting the thoughts at the end, he drifted to sleep within minutes, remembering the promise he made.

* * *

 **Supplemental Information**

\- Water Displacer is analogous to WD-40. WD stands for "Water Displacement."

\- The bright rock song playing was _Friday I'm In Love_ by The Cure.

\- The reason that Wolf can't use cash for the subway is that everything is based on digital payment. It is based on my experience when I went on vacation this summer, where to get a fare ticket, you must use your phone. Credit cards are not even accepted too.

\- Again, the scenery such as the high rises, etc. are based on what I saw on that same vacation.

\- The title _Dog Without a Bone_ is a line from the song _Riders on the Storm_ by The Doors. In fact, I originally had the chapter to be based off that song.

\- Also, as a warning, you will see me make up a lot of place names.

\- To get a perspective, Fox lives in the southwest side of the city, whilst Wolf lives more northeast of Fox.

\- Corneria City is divided into two regions, Corneria City, and Outer Corneria. Outer Corneria is like the suburbs, which politically wraps around Corneria City. More geography will be revealed in later chapters though.

\- Which band has four insignias? I bet you can figure that out for yourself.

\- Well, Fox and Wolf finally interacted somewhat. Next chapter will probably be out around mid to late December.

\- If you have the time, leave a review, because I feel like this story is going to be harder to write with all of the worldbuilding and bookkeeping.


	7. The End?

**VII – The End?**

 **Warning: Might be graphic at the end.**

 **A/N: After a busy and anxiety-inducing semester, I am finally on break and have the time to finish the chapter. Have a happy new year.**

 **Artwork** : I have decided to finally change the cover for this story. The new cover is basically a rough pencil sketch done on the back of a homework sheet. I know there's a lot of fixing to do because of my perfectionist side. I started this drawing in mid-November. If you want to know more, the characters took me about a week, and the whole background is taking me forever because I procrastinate way too much.

* * *

Wolf sprung up to a seated position, finding himself laboriously breathing, drenched in sweat that stained the linens and his tank top. His heart was close to bursting out of his chest as it was beating uncountably fast. The oddity was that he did not remember anything vivid that triggered those symptoms.

All of that aside, it came as a pleasant gift that Lylat was shining through the curtains for the first time in several years, even though it's only eight in the morning. He sat for a while to calm his nerves before standing up, taking a huge and loud yawn and stretching his body, sounding off a variety of cracks from his joints and spine. He wagged his tail back and forth to stretch that as well.

The feeling of hardwood floors under his bare feet instead of metal sent some warmth to his body. As he walked to the window and drew opened the curtains, Lylat was as radiant as ever from there, paired immaculately with the blue skies.

Sliding the window open, he peeked his head out, and a cool, refreshing northwest breeze behind the cold front provided him with energy. A crowded subway train sped by, heading towards the station he got off last night. Below the bridge, on the sidewalk, a variety of people walked to and fro; some were dressed professionally with briefcases in one hand and coffee in another, perhaps all flocking to newfound subway station ahead. Kids walked in packs of three, all with their backpacks, heading in the same direction.

The volatile scents coming from the various street food vendors below quickly diffused to Wolf, causing him to substantially salivate after several years.

 _Welcome Home, Wolf…_

Putting on the slippers, he walked out into the living room; an image of his dad sitting on the sofa with a lit cigar in his hand appeared. A younger version of himself led the way, where his father gave him 3 dollars in coins from his wallet, and that created warmth that filled his chest.

Wolf switched on the television and changed channels by turning a knob on the side, and instead of static, the news was on in full color. A caracal was standing in front of a map of the highways, outlined in mostly yellow and red, announcing the travel times.

He walked back to the master bedroom to browse for other leftover attire; as a result, he found a fresh pair of jeans that surprisingly fit him well and it took him a while to realize that he was wearing his father's clothes. He later found a sizable black polo shirt to wear in comfort.

He stood there, running that thought through his mind before slowly walking over to the bathroom, realizing that he had no toothpaste and toothbrush, any styling cream and comb, or any toiletries for that matter, so the best he could do for his bedhead was using his hands.

It also meant that he had to get out to buy his necessities, but blending in with the crowd…?

He searched the drawer underneath the sink fixture, and one of them had a generic rubber band, and at that point, he looked at his hair and extended a strand to examine its length.

He pulled back all his hair and fixed it into a short ponytail at the back, but without styling gel, some of his mohawk that was falling apart remined.

With a final check in the mirror, he never thought he would look somewhat good in this hairstyle and attire, but in his mind, it was almost a mandate to fulfill in order to survive. The hardest rid would the eyepatch, perhaps his most signature artifact. No one would want to look at the canyon running down his left eye, but there were no alternatives to that.

He walked over to the living room, looking out the window at more people walking on the sidewalks. Another multi-tone car alarm sounded off but was quickly silenced.

He plopped down on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen with memories of years past gradually making appearances in front of his eye, and gradually Fox entered his set of memories, but it had everything to do of everything culminating from yesterday. Again, Wolf began to question the sudden attitude change of Fox. Was it a ploy? Was Fox trying to goad Wolf into one of his schemes?

Soon enough, constant knocks on the door shattered his hallucinations, and he was obliged it open it, without thinking whoever might appear behind it.

"Oh… Hi, Fox…" For anyone else, it would be a bit awkward to think, for Fox, however, it proved to be a much more than a challenge.

Fox stood firmly, hands to the side, wearing a tee with his academy's emblem on it, paired with cargo shorts. His fur was neatly combed, managed, and his hair was nicely brushed with shine coming from his styling gel, and on his face were a pair of eyes gazing at his visage.

"May I come in?" Fox eventually asked, with a noticeable wavering in his voice.

"Uhm… okay…?" Wolf stepped out of the way, squinting his eye when he was behind Fox's back. "How did you get here, and specifically in this building?"

"Oh… The subway… Not a very good idea. Also, Someone was getting out of the building, so I caught the door before it managed to close."

"You sly fox." Wolf slowly shook his head. "I guess you can look around, since there's nothing to see. Your memory's pretty good since you remembered where the place is."

Fox took a deep breath, taking in the notes of wood coming from the dark brown furniture. He then walked into the living room doing circles as the curiosity of a toddler embraced him.

"Wow, I thought my house was old…" He uttered as he closed one of the doors on the TV stand.

"Well yes, of course. You got those old radiators that clang during the winter; we hang-dried our clothes… and a lot more old customs I have yet to remember."

The news was still displaying on the television, with the anchor discussing things about celebrities before segueing to a weather map, where a generous shade of yellow painted over the city.

"Surprised that channels still work on here," Fox walked over to the dining table.

"I know. There's always a certain charm watching stuff on these." Wolf retrieved the glass bottle of water they bought on Fichina.

Fox, as observant as before, pointed to that. "That is the smoothest water I have ever taste it. Don't go gulping it down." Even though he said that, he immediately envisioned the act. Instead, Wolf took a small sip and the verdict was a nod.

"You're right, Fox," Wolf exhaled. "That was a good buy." He placed the bottle back in the refrigerator. "Finally, water that doesn't taste like some factory runoff."

An awkward silence passed by.

"So what are you doing today?"

"Dunno… have to get stuff for here, I guess."

"Didn't you have to meet the General?"

"Oh…" Wolf lowered his head and sighed. "That too… Honestly, I need to go there just to get my services back up and get things renewed."

"I mean, it shouldn't be that bad. I talked to him a couple days ago. It's mostly good news."

"Well, if you insist. Hopefully I don't run into Peppy."

"Oh, Peppy." Fox gave some thought. "I can try my best to make him avoid us. If he sees you he might burst some arteries."

"We can go now, the capitol is about 2 miles away—" Wolf grabbed his wallet and began to pace towards the door.

"Wait!" Fox hollered. "It's in a new location."

Wolf turned around. "Oh? Where's it at?"

"It's at the southeastern tip of the city."

"Oh heck that's far."

"Yeah…" Fox scratched his head and pulled out his phone with his free hand.

Wolf placed his elbow on the table, heavy in thought. _Might as well have a familiar driving rather than some stranger who's volatile with their words and observations._ "That could work, but let's call him up somewhere rather than here."

Fox took out his phone and rung Bill. After the first dial tone, a faint techno rhythm could be picked up.

"Hey! What's up, chum?"

"Hi Bill… Listen. We need to get to the capital, aren't you going there today, too?"

"Oh… Well… traffic is godawful outside… I might have to wait until 12."

"Like how bad?"

"Like, every highway is red. Even if you take the small roads, the lights'll be your bottleneck."

Fox nodded as a torrent of garbled noise came through the speaker, which made him distance the phone away from his ear before it resolved to a sizzling noise. "Whacha making?"

"Hash browns, all homemade. I am trying so hard not to salivate onto the pan! It's basically like every time I cook."

"Well have fun."

"Thanks! See ya! Keep Wolf on a leash if you're heading out with em!"

The line dropped with a beep. To confirm, he opened the maps app, and it was true. Just two blocks down south was the Second Ring Road, one of those two-layered expressways, almost all of it was colored yellow or red. He punched in the address to the Capital building, and the expected ETA was close to what Bill mentioned.

"There's no hurry. You're acting like you're going to get fired from Star Fox if you're late." Wolf turned his whole body towards Fox. "I haven't eaten anything yet, so we have some time to kill."

"I was about to head out, but I kind of don't want to because… you know the obvious," Wolf shrugged.

"I mean you are dressed pretty well…" Fox took a closer look. Blue jeans, grey polo with popped collars, and somehow his hair was flatter…

"No, Fox…" Wolf closed his eyes and shook his head, revealing his makeshift ponytail to Fox's line of sight, which was something he thought Fox never imagine Wolf doing, and just then he noticed his clothing and thought he looked much better in it, and more… good looking.

"Oh! If you follow me it shouldn't be a problem. The big plus is that if we well… follow each other, people think we don't have strife anymore."

"Good point, Fox… Good point." Wolf nodded as his voice tapered down to a near-whisper.

"If there's any heat, I'll be the one to handle it, okay?

Fox watched Wolf stand there, fixedly staring out the window. A slight rumble could be felt again, resonating through the living space.

"You know what, that might as well work, Fox." Wolf slowly nodded but then he looked Fox in the eye. "If something goes wrong, you're a dead fox."

Fox squinted. "Should I take that seriously?"

"Up to you. I don't care."

If it was his old maniacal voice, sure it would be something to be slightly afraid of, but he thought of another inadequacy that eventually upped his anxiety: Fox only fought Wolf in space, in their respective spaceships. Eventually Fox shook his head and threw caution in the wind after thinking about last night.

"You wanna get some breakfast? You'll get a glimpse of the neighborhood," Wolf started.

"What are we eating though?"

"You'll find out, Fox," Wolf walked to his bedroom and came out tossing the keyring upwards and swiping it in midair. Fox stood by the kitchen entrance, staring at Wolf, exhibiting more of his more casual side.

"Is that polo new?" Fox commented.

"Oh heck no. It's like 50 years old, but still fits like it's new." Wolf rubbed it and pulled out some clumped fur interlaced with the fabric and tossed it to the side. Wolf walked past Fox and stopped at the door. Fox soon followed as they walked into the hallway, with Wolf locking the door behind him.

Wolf clapped loudly, turning on the ceiling lamps in the grey concrete hallway. On the other end of the hallway was room 401, and in the middle of the hallway was the concrete stairwell on one side and the new elevator on the other. As they were waiting, Wolf noticed the bannisters were repainted, a slight disappointment since he liked picking off the old green paint as he descended the stairs as a child.

Wolf thought that Fox might have been disgusted at one point on his way up, but he'd never thought that a dinky place like this would make his own heart warmed to the core.

At ground level, Wolf walked to the entrance door posthaste and held the door open like a hotel staff.

"Welcome to my world, Fox. My _old_ world." Wolf said as Fox stepped onto the tessellating bricks of varying shades of red making up the sidewalks. A strong yet fresh cool and dry breeze blew from the north, accumulating the anticipation in both as Lylat basked them in full light amidst the endlessly blue skies.

To the left of the entrance was a small market with wooden baskets of various fruits advertised at its very front. A loud rumbling roar came from their right, as they saw the gleaming white subway train speed by above and various cars, on wheels and hovering, pass by at regular intervals. On that same street, flocks of people walked to and fro, minding their own business; only one stole a glance at the two but immediately looked forward. Beeping noises sounded from their left as a small truck reversed to parallel park. All the ambience was garnished with a distant and familiar soft rock song from the radio during his pre-teen years.

Only 30 seconds later, another rumble sounded from above as a train on the opposite track sped by.

"Do you ever get annoyed from that, Wolf?"

"Nope. It's kind of therapeutic, actually."

Fox's eyes were darting everywhere, even eyeing Wolf's unconscious smile as he took in the environment. The simplicity, the liveliness, everything that is here he could not have back at home. Just seeing that the nearest subway station was a 200 meter walk just wasn't fair compared to the kilometer that Fox had to walk to get to his nearest one.

"Right… I need to remember where my childhood breakfast place is…" Wolf stroked the fur under his snout as he was drawing the street layout in his head. "Okay! I got it!" Wolf clasped his hands together, creating a loud clap that snapped Fox out of amusement mode.

"Found what?"

Wolf took some paces and paused under a street sign. "Come on, Fox!" he said and waved. Fox picked up the pace and power walked towards him as he crossed the smooth concrete. He saw a group of 10 or more people huddled at the street corner, and as they walked along the street next to each other, a tall blue double-deck bus drove by and stopped at said street corner.

"Hey Wolf, was this area always this crowded?" Fox looked all around.

"Course it is, even without the new train bridge."

Fox then realized that they were walking on the same sidewalk, but on the opposite direction compared to last night as the train station closed in on them; in the sunlight, the street seemed completely different, and even with all the commuters it felt like he's in the heart of the city rather than an abandoned street.

"Hey! Where you going?" Wolf's voice pierced through the commotion. Fox halted and turned back to see Wolf lined up behind 4 people at a pickup window at some small family-owned restaurant. Fox made his way behind Wolf as he saw a Spaniel in a grey business suit holding what looks like a fried pancake, making his way north.

"What is that thing that guy just left with?"

"You'll see." Wolf grabbed his wallet and took a five-dollar bill out. Saliva was coated all over in his mouth, spitting small drops out as he vocalized.

After the wait, Wolf hastily stepped up. "Nine potato pancakes, please!"

"That will be 4.50 please," the dog behind the counter requested, and the exchange was made immediately. "For here or to go?"

"For here."

"Take a seat inside then…"

As they sat, Fox immediately felt cramped as he sat on a dark rectangular mahogany wooden stool with various scuffs, scratches and words etched on it. As he scooched towards the desk, Fox instinctively grabbed onto the edge as support when he felt a falling sensation. Then he noticed that the stools had an extreme wobble, worrying that it might give at any moment.

The partially-glossed table was etched with various scratch marks, words and phrases from the most benign to the most inexplicable. What interested Fox more was that there was an etch of Andross on there with an X over it, and near it was a date with the year of 1984.

A couple seconds later, Wolf walked over, laying down a tray of nine fried pancakes, all of them the size of a thick drink coasters. The golden brown, shiny and flaky texture of each of them sent both of their stomachs to a vehement growl and their mouths to an overflow of saliva. Wolf ran his tongue across the outside of his mouth as Fox hastily attempted to grab one by his bare hands but immediately retracted his hand away, shaking it up and down as he winced.

"I know, Fox… I am trying my best too," Wolf whispered, but it was only thirty seconds later he suddenly sprang into action and aggressively cut one in half and shoved the whole thing in his mouth with a fork. As he swallowed, he panted as the steam from the searing hot potato filling vented out of his mouth.

From chugging down a half-liter sports drink under ten seconds to shoving a piping hot pancake down his throat in that amount of time… He's sure _something_.

…

"Wow, I'm surprised that you ate more than I did," Wolf grabbed a napkin and ran it across his mouth as Fox slowly chowed down on his fifth piece, which was a result of a compromise made after Fox bit into the first slice.

"Yup," Fox agreed as he chewed. "It's hard to not disappoint with this. I am surprised you only ate that little." He then drank a bit of water.

"Course, you probably've never been here before, so take this as my invitation."

"How have I never been here…?" Fox asked himself as he swallowed his last bite. "All this time I have been hanging out with my teammates… never really bothered to go to the shadier areas."

"Well, here you are. This place is not shady at all."

"You tell that to Falco and Slippy, because all they ever go to eat are in the suburbs, downtown, and at the malls."

The two got up and stood outside of the small shop where they were greeted by a cool westerly breeze again.

"Oh man… I haven't eaten this much in years…" Fox lazily stretched as they observed that the crowd has died down tremendously. Once at the train station, Wolf had to use Fox's phone again to pay his fare, and at the platform above, it was a stark contrast from last night, as groups of five crowded around each edge door.

Luckily, the train was more vacant as they were expecting, and they were able to take front seats, this time with Fox sitting adjacent to Wolf.

…

Over the journey, the two were quiet, only stealing peripheral glances from time-to-time, but one thing that did entertain them was crossing the river that divides the city into eastern and western sections. The train travelled above the road on the suspension bridge, offering a full panorama of the plethora of skyscrapers that define the city, and the shimmering river below all under perfectly blue skies.

Once out of the station, they appeared in front of a vast circular expanse, surrounded by stylish skyscrapers that kind of put the others to shame. At the center, a statue of Fox and James stood tall, enclosed by a spraying fountain. With numerous amounts of people walking around the place, some waved to Fox, and he would wave back.

Wolf groaned silently and rolled his eyes as Fox relished in his popularity, but it was only for a while as Fox led Wolf to the government tower, which stuck out amongst the many other towers with its saucer observation deck.

The building itself is surrounded by a large circular road, with a fence midway from the building proper. Outside of the entrance were four guards with their visors on. As they approached, Fox brandished his driver's license.

"What's O'Donnell doing here?" one of the guards sternly asked.

"He has an arrangement with General Pepper. I am simply escorting him," Fox explicated.

Two guards looked at each other and nodded. "Allow me," the same guard led the way inside the building, where the main floor was a gigantic atrium, enabling them to see thirty floors above. The guard led them straight to the elevator and up to the 48th floor. The doors opened to a small elliptical and carpeted foyer, decorated with lavish light fixtures and portraits of General Pepper in his prime and his badges having exceptional shine.

Three knocks on the door. "General Pepper, you have Fox McCloud and Wolf O'Donnell to speak with you."

"Alright, just give me one second," a deep yet humble-sounding voice muffled from the other side of the wooden doors. "Come in!"

The guard opened the door, and daylight spilled into the foyer. Fox walked into the office first, followed by Wolf.

Pepper sat with his glasses on, viewing on three monitors set next to each other, typing something on his loud keyboard before swiveling his chair around.

"Hello hello!" the hound took his glasses off and placed them to the side of an unsolved puzzle cube. He leaned forwards, clasped his hands together and rested his arms on the table before they heard the door lightly close.

"Alright, so you are out of jail, and Fox and I have talked long and…"

Wolf looked through Pepper and focused his attention at the window, offering a complete view of the vast, shimmering and turquoise Central Lake. A group of three sailboats appeared on the left, slowly making their way to the right as ripples travelled transversely to the sailboats. Further away sailed a yacht, eliciting an image of himself standing at the bow part of the deck, arms raised to the side and feeling the breeze caressing, slipping by every strand of his fur.

"…compromised the reward money to be two hundred and fifteen thousand."

The imagery went white as the image of reality sharpened to General Pepper leaning forwards. "Two hundred and fifteen thousand, mister O'Donnell."

"Wait, what?" Wolf eye's widened.

"215 thousand dollars can be yours!" General Pepper put on a game show type of voice. "If you comply with the following."

"215k… Are you serious about it?" Wolf's heart began to accelerate to the point close to bursting out of his ribcage.

Fox and Pepper nodded at the same time. "Completely. Panther and Leon both got 185k and are living quite well."

Wolf became utterly speechless and he shifted his sight to Fox and then to Pepper, who slid over and poured himself more fragrant Darjeeling tea into his mug, which immediately made Wolf picture Panther doing that exact action.

"The one condition is that your Wolfen will be confiscated for modifications until further notice. Secondly, you are not allowed to leave orbit, unless accompanied by a CDF pilot."

"Deal!" The utterance was almost instant, mind occupied with branching decisions on how to spend the money. Fox raised his eyebrow.

 _Doesn't he cherish his Wolfen?_

"Are you sure? If you secure your deal, you will not be able to retract."

Wolf gave it some _actual_ thought this time. _I don't really need to go back to that metal husk again, I guess it's a go for me… but my Wolfen…_

"Leon and Panther both agreed to this as well. Take your time," Pepper took a taste of his tea. "Hey Fox,"

"Yes, General?"

"You like tea?"

"I drink it some—"

"Here, have some." Pepper pulled open a cabinet drawer and handed him six packets like it is Halloween candy. "Here's some Maltines too." He then slid some orange packets with a picture of wheat and sun on it to Fox.

"Uhh… Thanks, General." Fox gently said as he shoved the sachets in his pockets.

"No problem. Them thing's been stocking up the drawer for a couple of days. By no means they're expired though."

"Right, I'm going for it," Wolf declared.

"Okay!" Pepper nodded as he turned to the computer and typed something in. "So with that… we have several other things that needed to be done to get you back on track." Pepper cleared his throat. "Your old apartment is all paid off, which is good. Your other house up north still has 3k mortgage, which were probably paid when you were in Star Wolf with those mobile transactions. Utilities should already be available for the former."

After twenty minutes of chit-chat and getting Wolf a new driver's license, they left the government building with high spirits.

"What did General Pepper give you?" Wolf turned to Fox as they walked away from the outdoor entry gate.

Fox grabbed the sachets and gave them to Wolf, which he investigated each. "These are things Panther would love."

"Well you can have them. I don't drink caffeinated beverages much."

"Don't mind if I do then," Wolf pocketed the small bags.

"Well… now what do we do? We only have 3 hours before I have to go to the dentist, and my stomach is still pretty saturated."

"I don't know, go home?" Wolf suggested then he let out a deafening yawn.

"Alright, I guess the train is the cheapest option. A cab ride from here to my house costs 23 dollars."

…

Once Wolf got back to his room, he immediately went to grab the bag of popcorn he got from the small grocery store in Fichina. He walked up to the TV and pressed the power button, and he crouched down to open a small cabinet below, stocked with VHS tapes with only years labelled on it, and in the space next to it was a dusty boombox with the power cable wound around it.

Removing it from the compartment, he blew some dust off it and plugged it in, and the rich sounds of FM radio came to life. He tuned to his favorite radio channel, which he was surprised it was still broadcast and still playing the songs of his childhood.

…

"Hello?" A muffled voice projected, followed by three knocks.

The room was a blur, but once Wolf wiped his eyes with the back of his hands once, he noticed the time on his boombox was flashing 3:45. Another three knocks sounded from the door, followed by the rattling of the doorknob.

"Coming!" Wolf announced as he coughed two times, stumbling over to the door and then opening it, letting Fox into his room and sitting down on a chair.

"You know, I kind of like this place."

"Why, there's nothing here."

"Exactly. There's nothing here."

Fox leaned back onto the sofa, the cooling sensation of genuine leather was infinitely better than the fabric sofa he had at home.

"So I had an idea, Wolf."

"What idea is it?" Wolf sat at the dining table and pulled out his cellphone.

"Do you want to have toast?"

"I don't mind that at all, Fox. At least it's better than spending time here alone."

"Like, right now. I know a pub we can get dinner. It's called Ionosphere. It's a pub but it looks more like something right out of our childhoods."

"Okay. Lead the way then." Wolf stood and pushed in the chair.

…

"Wow… I couldn't breathe back there…" Fox panted as the two ascended the stairs.

"Is the rush hours here really that bad? I don't remember so."

They stepped onto the masonry sidewalk, and immediately they turned to the large 10-lane road, separated from the sidewalk by a fence studded with plant boxes, all populated by cars locked in a grid from left to right; the road is also umbrellaed by a wide elevated expressway, which was also congested, indicated by a real-time traffic display mounted on the support beams. Wolf whistled in astonishment as they walked by some small eateries.

"Through here," Fox pointed to the left, which guided the two to a small alley with entrances to small shops on both sides occurring at regular intervals. After cutting through two blocks, they stood in front of a pub with shiny metal décor and with the logo "IONOSPHERE" in pink neon and a sunset-themed backdrop. Inside, the checkered tiled floors were familiar territory to both, even though Wolf has never been to the place once.

The pub was large enough to have a small stage on one side, with the usual stools on the other, and dining tables scattered in the middle with some patrons eating.

The two sat next to each other at the bar, and an old border collie walked over to the two, polishing a highball glass. "Hello Fox and Wolf! Surprise seeing you two here. What would you like?" he asked jollily.

"I'll have a glass of… uh… Harp Draught…" Fox raised a finger.

"I didn't expect the great Fox McCloud to indulge in beer…"

"I seldom have it. You should see Falco. We have a beer pong set on the Great Fox just for him."

"And you, sir?" The collie pointed at Wolf.

"Long Isle Iced Tea," Wolf ordered sternly. The collie nodded and went to work.

After three minutes of silence, the two finally got their respective drinks, with Fox slurping up the head from the dark beer. The two also ordered a burger to go along with their drinks.

"Cheers?" Fox held up his glass, and Wolf nodded as they both touched glasses with smiles on their faces. Fox took a gulp of his beer, whilst Wolf took a moderate sip from the straw.

Wolf exhaled. "Oh man… This is great."

The two were on their phones for a while, and then Fox began, "What's your number, Wolf?"

"Number? Oh uh… Crap… I haven't used this in so long."

"There has to be some way to see it."

Wolf eventually found his number and reported it to Fox, and as Fox called him, his services were successfully resumed as expected.

"What do you think you're gonna do with that money, Wolf?" Fox asked.

"Mmm…" Wolf put his elbow on the table and tapped his long and sharp claws on the glossy counter. "I don't know. Might be a new car? I don't think I need many things. Oh, probably buy stuff for the apartment."

"I see. So where are your other guys?"

"Panther and Leon? Oh, I forgot I have a group chat…"

Wolf pulled up the group chat. "Hey boys, I'm back!" He typed and pressed Send and put the phone back into his pocket.

As he drank more sips of the cocktail, he thought more about the deal he made with General Pepper, but then as Fox finished half of his beer, Wolf's glass was all empty, and the burgers were not even served yet. The collie walked over, and Wolf hastily handed over his credit card. "Give me another, keep a tab please." Wolf then hurried to the bathroom and came back almost immediately, footsteps sounding like stomping.

"Shot of Tropical rum please, as well."

"Wolf… You should…"

"Shut up, Fox. Let me have a moment by myself."

About 20 silent minutes passed by between the two, but for Wolf it was an immensely crowded 20 minutes after downing a shot of Tropical rum.

 _…_ _about 3 years ago…_

 _"_ _Here, Panth, Leon. Sign this please."_

 _"_ _What's that?"_ Panther's voice echoed.

 _"_ _Oh… once our jobs are done, that's a birthday present for you know who. He's turning 17."_

 _"_ _That's awfully nice of you. Never expected the lord to be like this."_ Leon added.

 _"_ _Wow, even with this nicely drawn rose, you showoff, Panth…"_ Leon hissed. He snatched the fountain pen out of Panther's tight grasp and signed his name, showing a poor attempt at mimicking Panther's style.

 _"_ _Nice cursive, Leon."_ Panther joked as he saw the jagged lines.

 _"_ _Shut up, pussycat."_

 _"_ _I'd like all of you guys to keep this a secret," Wolf announced as he pasted the card on top of the wrapped box and then sticking a bow on top of it._

 _"_ _Where you going to keep it? If the dirty feds come n they will for sure take that away."_

 _"_ _The storage box in my office."_

…

As he downed more of his cocktail, the images were in more gory detail.

Fox watched, in sheer confusion, Wolf with his head down, constantly massaging the sides of his head. He then made a hand gesture to the bartender and quietly growled as the bartender show any traces of hesitation. So far, two shot glasses and two cocktail glasses were empty within the span of 40 minutes.

 _…_

 _"_ _That guitar… how old is it?"_ Panther inquired.

 _"_ _My father gave it to me in when I was 10. He bought it in 1967. It even has an autograph of Mick Jaguar on it when they were on tour."_

 _"_ _Holy! You should sell it."_ Leon added.

 _"_ _No! Heck no!"_ Wolf growled.

 _"_ _What about records in there?" Panther inquired._

 _"_ _No! They are all mine!" Wolf shouted and took several breaths to calm himself. "I just want… to be back… I want to see… Imagine how joyed he would be…"_

 _…_

Fox stared at the estranged Wolf, who seemed to be sweating and growling quietly. He hasn't taken a bite out of his burger, or maybe he never noticed that the burger was in front of him. His hands were all clenched into tremoring fists, raising some red flags in Fox, but no green light yet.

Being Friday night, the place was being slowly populated with mostly the younger demographic, so far, no one has noticed Wolf yet. A minute later, a strange sight came through the door. It's definitely a wolf, but his fur was almost pure white, except for the face, which had a tad grey on it… kind of like… Wolf. His tail is quite bushy, a mostly pure white color with grey highlights down the top, but the structure of that tail has that similitude.

…

 _"_ _I made a promise, Panther, Leon… That little present is a part of it."_

 _"_ _Wait… whom are ya talkin' about?" Leon smirked._

 _"_ _Jonathan! You idiot!"_

 _"_ _Oh Sorrrrry!"_

 _Panther chuckled in the background._

…

 _"…_ _not allowed outside of orbit… It's ruined!"_

 _General Pepper does have tricks up his damn sleeves…_

 _…_

So far, about 7 shots have been downed into his body, and as more and more alcohol were being processed, his body felt absent. The weights of his limbs were practically nothing. Everything around him was turning into a blur, and worst of all, it began to tear into more of his subconscious.

Fox stared at him. He was idle, sitting like a statue for the past twenty minutes. He moved his head left and right to see his face, and from what he could gather, he was gritting his teeth.

"Wolf?" Fox asked.

Wolf's ears have become an open channel.

…

 _"_ _Hey, my name's Leon Powalski. I saw you fight back there… pretty fuckin good!"_

 _"_ _Yes I know. I'm Wolf O'Donnell. Pleasure to meet you."_

 _They both shook hands._

 _"_ _Is this every week at this damn bar?" Leon asked._

 _"_ _I think so."_

 _"_ _Why are you doing it?"_

 _"_ _Andross' request to prove my self-worth. If he wants a new mercenary team, he wants the members to prove their strength."_

…

Fox looked around. The bartender kept staring at Wolf. To his back, the other wolf squinted his eyes and began whispering to a tawny coyote.

"Wolf! Can you answer me?" Fox tapped his finger at his shoulder, but in an unexpected instant, he flung his arm towards him quickly, with the back of his hand smacking Fox like a fastball to the cheek. He ended up on the floor, wincing and seeing Wolf immediately stand up, towering over him. The whole ambience died down considerably.

It was mostly hindsight that Fox would see this through, but before anything could happen to him, the other wolf ran to him and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Wolf, what are you doing!?" he yelled shrilly, but in milliseconds, he shoved him back and delivered a rapid rake with his claws.

There was a gasp and a loud yip.

On his face were four lacerations, looking like someone stuck a knife and dragged it.

Blood dripped down from the wounds whilst the smaller wolf looked at Wolf, growling and consumed in pure anger. Before he could say anything, Wolf delivered another rake, in which the smaller one could not stop, tearing new wounds on the chest, staining the white tee with a torrent of blood. With adrenaline pumping, pain became mute.

For Wolf's third attempt, the other wolf was then quick enough to stop his hand that was going for his throat, and he proceeded to punch Wolf on the side of the head, stunning him for a moment.

The small wolf's breaths became broken as he closed his eyes and delivered a punch to Wolf's snout. The crowd cheered in response, cheering him on by the name "Jonathan."

"I got claws too, Wolf." Jonathan suggested as he opened his right hand.

Wolf's actions have become more awkward. He was drooling and blood was dripping down from the mouth. Then, with some delay, a quick rake slashed three parallel lacerations onto his face just below his eyepatch. The cuts were not as deep as the one Wolf inflicted, but it still did some damage.

He looked towards Fox and signaled him with some finger movements with his shaky and sweaty hands. Fox stood without Wolf's attention and body slammed him, crashing down onto some tables in the vicinity. He saw the bartender readying a blowdart as fast as he could.

With Wolf down on the ground, Fox was able to secure his legs from flailing around, and the other wolf was able to secure his arms.

"Don't beat him up any further. I know you want to do that Fox, but you will probably know why," the reddened white wolf directed. "Panther and Leon were right about you… Wolf…"

With the introduction of those names, Fox was more confused. How did _he_ know the two and Wolf, and to that degree of specificity?

Soon enough, the resistances from his limbs died down. The two restraining him agreed to cautiously let go. Wolf got up on all fours and coughed, and it wasn't any regular cough, it sounded more like more of a choking cough.

Wolf emerged from the sea of alcohol.

In pure silence, Wolf turned his head towards the other wolf. He gently took one of his hands and softly rubbed the wounds on his face, even taking some of the blood with it. Wolf's single eye, finally focusing for once, examined the bewildered looks on both Fox and most importantly, the more injured Jonathan before looking at his own hand with his blood on it.

There were no more options but to drown.

Wolf went from being on all fours to a loose body on the floor. His tail and all other extremities were all limp and unresponsive.

 _It's all over._

* * *

 **Supplemental Information**

\- **This isn't the end! I already have the next chapter all in my head.**

\- The hardest part of this chapter was the decisions. Whether to make Wolf have an injury in one eye or have two working eyes was a tough call.

\- Having played a liberal amount of Smash Ultimate, **I have decided to change Wolf's eyes to having a red iris** , because I really like the way he looks in that game.

\- I wandered off familiar territory and tried my best at some angst here. I have never really written action-y scenes here, but I have no estimates about the quality. If you did not expect it at all, I apologize. **This will be the ONLY angsty scene in the story as far as I can see.**

\- Maltines are their version of Ovaltine.


	8. The Beginning

**Author's Note**

Yeah I am kind of late on this. I was hoping to finish this chapter by the end of my winter break, but of course with my master procrastinating skills, it's been one month since the last update. So really there's no update schedule for this.

Spring semester has started, so I don't know to what extent the workload is going to be since it's only the second week.

Anyways, enjoy.

* * *

 **VIII – The Beginning**

"You really want to bother me in the morning, huh?"

"Well, sorry… I want to know what happened last night."

"Listen, Panther… I really don't know what went on yesterday." Jonathan explained whilst staring at the white tiled ceiling, laying on a white hospital bed, with his cellphone on the side desk.

"Wolf sent a message to me at around five. I did not see it around 6:30 because I was with Krystal."

"Well he was too busy having a drunken rage. I did not know he likes rum that much."

Jonathan went on and told Panther about everything that happened last night at the bar, but he only talked about the face value of all of it, including the details on his injuries and such.

"Wow, after all these years living alone…" Panther sympathized.

"Yeah, Panth… I get it. I deserve enough pity already."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Well…" Jonathan sat up. "I need to finally get my shit together, because I absolutely cannot take this any longer."

"Oh…"

"Yeah. I am ready to get my years being alone all back… Anything else you want to bother me with?"

"Well… can I come to—"

"No. Not until I get this shit straightened out."

"Fine. I guess take good care of yourself… You can do it, I promise."

"Yeaaaaah, I don't know if I can do that. I'll see."

"I am going on a bike ride through the forest preserve, talk to you later."

Jonathan immediately hung up and crashed onto the pillow and stretched with surprisingly no soreness whatsoever. The only thing he was hooked onto was the vital signs machine and a bag of blood with his blood type and species name on it. He placed both of his bare arms onto the bed and noticed that they blended in quite well with the fabric. On his chest area, there were no traces of injuries until he unfurled the white fur, revealing the segments of the sutures.

He grabbed his phone again and checked it.

 **Panther (6:58am)** : Hey I heard ur dads back but hes not responding, u have any clues?

Once he opened his main social media app, it was filled with comments about the ordeal yesterday, and someone even published a video of it. The video was grainy and it began during the middle of the fight. The number of comments, like and shares were in the thousands, and the comments were more geared towards hailing Fox and Jonathan as "heroes." He gripped his phone harder along with gritting his fangs. In his head, he could see himself throwing his phone on the floor with force, shattering it to pieces.

He laid down on the pillow, trying to sleep it off, but his energy barred him from doing so. He could not stand up or do anything without bothering the hospital staff, but they came into the room a minute later. The doctor was a Great Dane, who almost bumped his head on the doorframe on the way in, and he was accompanied by two nurses.

"Right, Jonathan. Your bloodwork is perfect so there would be no worries of septicemia. Stitches should dissolve by the second or third day."

"Sweet, so the rest?" Jonathan replied straightly.

"Concerning your father, Wolf. He's in the downtown hospital. We have admitted you here since you have maximum coverage here, that being free of charge, and it's closer to your house."

"Wait… he's not here? Why isn't he here!?" His voice turned into a growl.

"The downtown hospital is closer to where he lives."

"Ugh… fine." Jonathan landed his head on the cushion with a loud thud.

"You're all about set, Jonathan. Also, fighting your own father? That takes balls of steel though…" The doctor announced astoundingly.

"Yeah yeah shoo shoo I don't care," he waved his hand as he looked to the curtains.

"Even Fox McCloud's coming here."

"What?" Jonathan turned his head.

"Yes, _the_ Fox McCloud." The doctor seemed glowing, and the weird grin he had only made Jonathan cringe harder.

"Well I would've guessed. Now go. Leave me be please."

The group left and lightly closed the door.

"Good god," he said then audibly shook, shrugging out the discomfort from that conversation as he played games on his phone.

* * *

Fox, dressed in a simple dark blue tee and cargo shorts, walked along a quaint sidewalk near his house, head down, hands in both pockets, trying to reel in the events of yesterday. Just thinking about the events leading up to that made his head hurt with every iteration since it spans all the way back to the Lylat wars… 10 years ago, or even before that with his father's death.

He looked up and around the residential street, and it was dead silent in terms of any activity, except for the morning birds, typical for an early Saturday morning. Every house he walked by looked identical with the same front gates, lawns, and everything. Cars of different varieties were parked one after another next to the curb. It was still ridiculous to think that these houses cost almost the same as an apartment room in the city, about 350 thousand dollars, but thankfully his father bought it for cheap back in the sixties before it soared in value.

A gentle breeze blew from the northwest, gently rustling the juvenile birch trees on the sides of the road. Looking up, it was the same gorgeously clear skies as yesterday but with some wispy clouds.

Walking quietly, he looked at each slab of concrete passing by as he sulked his way to the train station that's nearest to his house; As he rode down the escalator, his mind still would not cease thinking about hypotheses. He could have had stopped everything if he was courageous enough to potentially face him one-on-one, but he did have his doubts holding him back because of the same reason.

Since some police investigation has started, it would lead him to the right path, but at the same time, he felt the obligation to call it off and deal with it himself and with that mysterious Wolf that amazingly fought him.

Fox took out his phone and there were three texts.

 **Falco (02:13):** He still like this? Man he needs to go back to prison. What a low-life.

 **Falco (03:39):** wow I still cant stop thinking about what happened when I watched the video. Hope ur feeling alright. Oughta teach the bastard a lesson. We got the dinner rsvpd for sun 6pm. Its at 1098 Amber Ave in Uptown. You can tell us the whole story there.

 **Slip (05:59):** Hey! Are you alright? I heard some crazy things happened!

As he sat on the bench waiting for the train, he carefully reread the messages, and after giving some thought, he chose not to reply to them as he believed that it's more of a personal issue rather than his whole evil motif; and Falco, as always, saw face value, which came off as a bit rude to Fox after thinking about how Wolf was so different before the fiasco. He then imagined if Peppy got a hold of it, he will end up in the clinic as well.

He looked around and found himself the be the only ones in the station for obvious reasons. As the train came, he headed to the front-most door and entered the train.

With the train being the same make as the other line, he sat in the seat where Wolf have been sitting on the others and sitting in the same posture: hands behind his head and legs stretched, resting on the elevated surface behind the windshield.

General Pepper provided the directions to the University Medical Center to Fox at 4:30 in the morning via e-mail with the map attached. Apparently, he must ride the trains to University South, which is kind of close to Bill, being two stops away from his place.

As the train sped through the tunnels, it was a special feeling as he was being hypnotized by the fluorescent lights passing by, which provided more capacity to think.

 _How did he know what Panther or Leon said, or how does he know them in the first place?_

 _Face similar to Wolfs… whiter and bit shorter ears… Different hairstyle…_

 _White fur on legs and arms…_

 _Same bushy take but pure white…_

 _Looks pretty tall…_

 _Could he be somehow related?_

Fox shook his head.

 _Impossible! Must be a coincidence!_

After that phase…

 _Why did I even suggest going to the bar…? He was so… nice… I guess that's why?_

 _Everything was going to so well, too!_

 _Now it's all back to square one… or square none!_

 _Ay… I guess it's all my fault then?_

 _Or is it his?_

 _My stars… Just stop, Fox._

After the commute, he slowly walked out of the train, up the platform. The name of the station began to befuddle him since this place does not resemble campus at all, but upon further inspection, it was an open-air mall since the names of the establishments were name brand vendors.

There were only a few people walking around, but the overall silence made his fur stood a little and seeing all the storefronts with the shutters down amplified it just a bit. He took out his phone for the GPS, and it directed him to head south.

Once he was out of the mall, bathing in the fresh early rays, Fox found himself at the corner of a rather large intersection with no crosswalk markings, and the roads and sidewalks were barred by fences. To his back was another entrance to the same subway station, and it was the only sensible way to go.

Fox followed the arrows on the ground to the tunnel, crossing the road. The marble ground had a sheen to it, enabling him to see his own face and the colorful reflections of the various illuminated advertisements mounted on the wall, most of them advertising for newly built apartments near or off campus.

At the end of the tunnel, the staircase led him up to the other side of the four-lane road. The block had a large yet empty field. Looming in the distance was a small skyscraper, supposedly his destination. He continued to walk but stopped at the top of a small bridge over a flowing creek at the end of the field, admiring the chromatic display of flowers lined along both sides of the stream and noticing the sharp difference to the emptiness of the field to the tall medical campus on the other side.

Eventually, with some help from signage with weird arrows, he entered the emergency room, all sparkly clean and bathed in daylight. On the reception desk, a brown lab was playing what seemed to be bullet chess on his computer, and from his speed, he seemed to be pretty good, although Fox has no knowledge of chess at all, except for how each piece moves.

The brown lab immediately turned to him. "Hello Fox! What may I do for you?"

"I would like to see… this guy named Jonathan."

"Ah, Jonathan… He lives on the same apartment complex as I do." The lab peels off a visitor label.

"Really?"

"Yes, but we just see each other pass by and that's about it. I heard he's gotten into fame but he ain't too happy about that. Why don't you go talk to him?" He gave Fox the visitor sticker to paste onto his shirt. "He's on floor 16, room 1601."

"Thanks," Fox gently said as he went through the double doors and to the elevators, taking one to 16th floor, and his room was immediately visible as it was right by the elevator hall. The opaque window was shining bright. Fox slowly and hesitantly walked over to the door and knocked gently.

"Come in, whoever you are." He heard a voice shout out from the other side. Fox opened the door, and the same white wolf he saw yesterday was minding his own business watching television and snacking on chips. "Hey…" He put the chips to the side. As Fox investigated his face, it came to his surprise that with that deep of a cut it became spotless.

After the shortest moment of Fox looking plainly at him and fidgeting his fingers…

"Hello? You confused or something?"

"Uh… oh! No." Fox answered then looked away.

The wolf squinted his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Okay, yes." Fox sighed.

"Good. Because pretty sure I have lost my brain for the last several hours."

Fox walked around as the wolf continued to watch TV and grabbing some chips from the bag. "What are you here for. Wait… is it the stupid police-evidence thing?"

Fox nodded in response.

"Goddammit," the Wolf threw his arms up and exclaimed with some gruff in his voice. His gruff is like Wolf's too. "Back to the slammer again, whoop-dee-fucking-doo. This day just gets **better and better**."

Fox, although thinking that's the right gesture, was shocked that he heard the opposite perspective, which he was leaning towards as well.

"I guess you want to frame him, huh?"

Fox seized up as his yellow eyes targeted him with a trace of hostility. He then sighed, realizing whom he was talking to.

"Go on. I won't beat you to a pulp if you say otherwise." His voice went from a mean gruff to a gentler soothing tone.

"No…?"

"Oh? That's a surprise. I'd like to hear your thoughts, if it's not too intrusive."

Fox pulled up a stool and sat next to his bed.

"First of all. My name is Jonathan. If you are keen enough, you may know something major about me Fox…" He looked at Fox in the face. "What do you prefer to go by?" He put on a deeper, more professional tone "Should I be lame and formal and call you ' '?" His voice reverted, "or is 'Fox' okay?"

"You can call me Fox. No calls me Mr. McCloud, or Star Fox."

"Good. I hate people who gets pissed when they get referred by their first names."

"How old are you, may I ask?"

"Wow, right with that question, huh? I thought you would ask the more obvious." Even for someone who got beaten up, he's quite calmed. "I'm 19."

Fox's eyes widened. "19?"

"Yes! Turning 20 in two months."

Fox was staring dead into space, whilst Jonathan tilted his head and then snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Why? Does it bemuse you?"

"You had the bravery to take on Wolf… and yet so young…"

Jonathan crashed back onto the pillow and emitted a flustered groaning sigh. "Bravery? More like hesitation," He put his phone on the counter. "A lot of people, online and in person have been telling that I had the balls to fight Wolf," He had his head down. "You probably view me as the 'hero of the day' but I view myself otherwise."

"Why is that?" Fox would have guessed, but he decided to play it safe.

"Did you remember me saying something to you about not killing him?"

Fox nodded. "Yes, I was confused about that."

"I had no aggression towards him… Well, that part where I scratched him was one of them… I was trying to control him before he goes runaway."

"Runaway?"

"Yes. I had a feeling that he would be that kind of drunk. Did you as well?"

Fox slowly nodded.

"When I punched him, I was aiming to not punch him in the eye, teeth, ear, throat, or go for any 'sweet spots.' I only punched him in the nose. I thought it would suppress him."

"Well that's quite the feat though."

"You could see how much I was shaking. If it weren't for your help I would've been dead. Judging by the amount of time he hasn't see me, it'll be a big loss for the both of us."

"Wait… do you know him?"

"Well? Guess. How long have you known him for, Fox?"

"Ever since the Lylat Wars, and it's 8 ALW… so 10 years." Fox calculated.

"Oh, fancy. I have known him since 1989." Jonathan reclined with a smug smile on him.

"So that's… wait… you've known him your whole life!?"

He nodded proudly. "Yes, Fox."

"Then wait… my guess would be somewhat plausible… you do look like Wolf!"

"Yes I do. I was waiting for you to say that. If you want some pertinent fact that will probably scare you, take a gander at my medical folder. _If you dare!_ "

Fox walked to the end of the bed and snatched the folder from the bin before sitting on the stool again. On the front of the folder had the "IMMUNIZATIONS OK" sticker with all his vaccines listed. Once he opened the folder, it contained his mugshot.

"Jonathan… Oh…" Fox suddenly froze as he slowly pivoted his head up. "O'Donnell!?"

"Yes, my last name is O'Donnell!" Jonathan smirked and chuckled.

Fox slowly scanned down the section and found the information that he wasn't prepared to see at all. " **Father** : O'Donnell, Wolf."

Jonathan observed his blatant shocked expression pasted on his face like some kind of doll.

"Whelp. See you in 10 minutes, Fox." He laughed as he pointed the remote to the TV. "They should give me some of that anesthetic. I feel so good waking up this early this time."

The TV channel changed to the weather forecast, displaying a map of the continent colored in a color gradient that depicted temperature, overlaid with pressure contours and animated particles abstracting wind motion. The forecast consisted of a Doberman discussing low level moisture advection from the south for the beginning of next week and how it would pose a severe storm threat and temperatures soaring up to 34 with dew points of 22.

"Blegh… summer." Jonathan groaned as he looked to Fox with that same smile and he can imagine the smell of his brain fuming by then. "Sounds like every meteorologist's wet dream."

Fox turned himself around then stared at Jonathan, noting the similarities once more.

 _Everything makes sense!_

At the same time, nothing made sense.

Soon, the doctors came in, and the first thing they have done was to notice Fox. Smiles lit up on their faces as they were all gossiping. Fox was completely oblivious; Jonathan could not help but look away, flash his fangs and growl.

"Alright, Jonathan… We're sorry." The doctor spoke.

"Just… don't do it again in front of me." Jonathan muttered.

"Everything seems to be a-ok now. We need you to sign this release form so you can be discharged immediately."

"Sure…" The doctor handed him a clipboard with the form attached to it and Jonathan signed it. The various nurses pulled out the blood transfusion needle in his arm and unplugged him from the vital signs machine.

"Don't put too much strain on your chest area, or you'll risk breaking open the wounds again."

"Yeah I'll try my best."

The doctors left, leaving the two in silence.

"Oh Fox… Maybe I shouldn't've revealed myself too early." Jonathan laughed silently as he sat up and then stood. He stretched and heard several cracks in his bones. He swept his snowy white tail left and right before he turned to Fox, staring at the ceiling.

Fox shook his head as he watched Jonathan walk over to slide open the curtains, revealing full-height windows.

"Hey, I can see my house from here."

Beyond his house, the vast blue lake filled the rest of the horizon.

"I love how distant the place is from the city."

He looked back, still seeing Fox still probably piecing stuff together.

"Looks like I was talking to myself, aren't I…" he chuckled, tilted his head and leaned against the window. "It was nice meeting you, Fox." He walked over to the door, grasping his hand on the knob.

"Wait!" Fox blinked twice and shouted.

"Oh, now look who's back in reality… Fox. I was waiting for you to escort you out."

"Sorry… I just-"

"I know." Jonathan was still chuckling a little. "Well come on. Let's get you out of this depressing place."

The two followed each other in silence—with Jonathan leading the way and Fox well behind him—to the exit of the hospital.

"Well, I guess I'll meet you at the downtown hospital?" Jonathan suggested.

"Aren't we going there together?"

"I have to go to my apartment first. I want to switch out this generic white tank top cause I can't go wear this outside…"

"Oh, well..."

Fox took a step forward and stood next to him as he checked his phone. Fox rose up on his tip-toes and became the exact height as him before taking two steps back and staring at him. In the sunlight, the whiteness of his fur on his arms, legs and tail became incredibly prominent, to the point that it is almost glowing. With him standing there, he was able to scrutinize his similitude with Wolf.

"What are you doing? Thankfully there's no one around to see you doing weird shit around me." Jonathan spotted Fox walking around him in at least two circles in his peripheral vision. "What are you, the travel security?"

Even his voice, although a tad higher pitched, struck a similarity, and Fox couldn't simply grasp the facts since so many feelings were coursing inside him.

"Well I-"

For some reason, Jonathan began laughing. "Hey, you're at least better than some of the things my dad does."

That sparked a large firecracker of interest in Fox's head.

"Hey, we got time. You can come with me to the apartment. I'll be very brief. In the meantime we can tell each other all about Wolf."

"Sure!" The response was almost immediate.

"Wow, much enthusiasm Fox, something I wish I had a lot of…" he looked away and then back to Fox. "Anyways, let's go. It's just about a kilometer east. I can show you how _not Corneria City_ it is."

He followed Jonathan, pretending he's Wolf as it didn't really make a difference.

"Here's the small creek," Jonathan explained as they walked the small bridge. "It's my special place."

"How is it special?"

"It's nice to stand here at like 1 am and think about the horri—I mean random thoughts." He shook his head and leaned on the beautifully carved railing for a while before they walked towards the intersection. Fox followed in silence, admiring all the empty space that's hard to come by in the city.

Jonathan continued to debrief the surroundings, including the large field Fox passed by earlier, the small mall he exited, a fairly glossy and new university building, and some other smaller buildings. It was monumentally less intensive than Wolf's neighborhood for sure.

"There you go. That's my neighborhood. Exciting, ain't it?" He sighed deeply. "Come on, Fox. Follow me."

The two entered the tunnel again but this time exiting onto the block diagonal from the mall. A soothing breeze blew by, rustling the shrubs separating the field and the sidewalk and caressing the furs of the two. They walked a bit more, taking notes of the air, the surrounding lands, the tree-lined roads and sidewalks, and the vacancy.

"See those towers that look like dominoes up ahead? That's where I live."

Fox stayed silent but nodded in response.

"You know, I have never thought of talking to someone as famous as you, like casually talking, what we're doing now."

"I only do that if I have some kind of mission to fulfill."

"When you came in I thought you would have like 16 guards orbiting around you who would execute anyone within a one kilometer radius."

"Oh, no. I trust the citizens here."

"Makes sense for a coveted hero. Just be careful where and when you go. You don't know when you're gonna get swamped by your fans."

After a moment of silence as they approached a traffic light, Jonathan began again. "I am surprised you didn't get flayed to a thousand pieces."

Fox turned to him with a mean look.

"Whoa, I mean he is evil, right, and all other connotatively similar attributes."

"He wasn't like that at all before that." Fox angled his head down.

"Interesting. Do you want to share a memory? You go first, of course." He cleared his throat. "Hence begins the test of your cogency."

They stopped at a traffic light. Even though there were a few cars, they had the option to jaywalk.

"He saved me during the Aparoid invasion, but he told me that he would be the one who would kill me."

"Old news, Fox. Old news." Jonathan leaned on the pole and yawned. With the sun shining on his eyes, the yellow iris looked as it if was fluorescing. His bushy tail wagged idly as the Lylat's rays made it look like it's shining on fresh snow.

"Well that's not the whole story yet."

The two canines crossed a wide street at the signal cue of the stoplight, and they ended up in a gated community of apartments, with a small green park studded between them.

"Why would you take him to the bar in the first place? Alcohol elicits distinctive yet arbitrary responses in an individual."

"I thought it would be nice to have some toast… now that I thought he was nicer…"

"Well, I can't blame it all on you… There has to be something else disturbing him that's over my head as well…"

He waved the token in front of a sensor on the wall and the pedestrian gate opened to the apartment complexes. Each apartment looked well-built and designed with concrete painted with orange, tan and other earthy colors. In the middle of the apartments were roads to park cars and a small grassy garden with a playground.

Jonathan silently led Fox to the first apartment on the extreme left of the entrance. With a tap of the token, Jonathan opened the glass doors and they were in the elevator hall.

The two were dead silent as the elevator in the center opened. Jonathan pressed 23 and the door closed immediately. He stood in one corner, looking down, whilst Fox stood in the other, staring up and already feeling a bit of fatigue.

"Say, from that assessment, I'd say that's kind of close to what I was hoping for, but yet so far off!"

"Far off?"

"Oh, you haven't seen the majority of it. I'd say to you it must be more of a fever dream."

When the elevator door opened the two walked right to an open air corridor, branching to four rooms, one on either side, and two in the middle.

"I'll be out in a few. Don't get too defeated by the existential crises!" Jonathan requested as he opened the door to room 2303 and closed it without a sound.

Leaning on the balcony of the exterior hallway and facing south, to the left were the buildings Jonathan described, and to the right was the shimmering blue lake, and looking below was enough to give him goosebumps. The breeze was more comfortable up here as well. It's like Fox's dream apartment. A moment later, the scenery proved to be not enough to shove away the thoughts of Wolf. He tried so hard to imagine Wolf in the perspective of his son, and he just could not see it through, as he has been exposed to his evil side for so many years. Even for the last two days, he has been blindsided every time, even though Fox was trying to return favors.

Five minutes later, he heard the doorknob click behind him and some lingering laughter. Fox turned around to see him dressed cleanly in an attire typical of a college student with all his fur combed nicely and such.

"Ready when you are Fox," he twirled his lanyard before stuffing it in his shorts pocket. Without any notice, he opened the door again and walked in, but emerged with his water bottle, which he periodically tossed lightly into the air and caught.

"Fox… You're gazing at me like I am your enemy…"

"Why I was…"

"I know you're still trying to compare. You'll see soon in an hour… First let me ask you a question." Jonathan took several paces towards him. "Do you believe in magic?"

"I don't think?"

"Well start believing now."

* * *

Creaking open his eyelids, there was nothing but simple shades of grey on one side of his room.

As he tried to move, a sensation of someone trying to drive a screw into his head became arresting. He gave up on turning his body to the side.

He lazily retrieved his phone and turned on the screen, which shone with the intensity of Lylat itself, resulting in him placing his phone down quickly.

It was all one blurry color.

Words of last night were echoing, but they were indistinguishable. Familiar faces were popping up in his mind, but it was still a mess.

He picked his head off the pillow, only to drop from the pain of his neck.

He went to grab his phone again, and it slowly began to resolve itself within a couple of minutes. On his home screen, it consisted of texts from Panther and Leon, most from the former, and many of the missed calls were from him.

 **Leon (10:10am** ) "Wolf, I am going to be blunt. If this ever goes to court, I may testify against you. Imagine how much mental damage you've caused to him. Poor chap must be in ruins! Remember you said in Sargasso that he's the precious treasure of the team? Oh, look how the tables have turned!"

 **Leon (10:28am)** "I won't be coming, if you're wondering. I need to relax. I really want out of this, but I can't."

 **Panth (10:31am)** "He seems rly mad when I talked to him this morning"

Just glancing at the text messages made his already frail heart crack into pieces.

A moment later, a blinding light came from the door, accompanied by two silhouettes casting shadows.

"Mister O'Donnell?" A deep male voice sounded off.

Wolf refused to answer verbally, nor did he even bother; thus a painful nod of the head made do.

"May we enter?" the same voice asked.

"No…" Wolf weakly croaked as he pulled the cover over his face.

"Just to let you know you are ready to be discharged anytime."

"Well… I don't care… just leave me here…" Wolf croaked again, muffled under the covers.

"You also have a visitor."

Wolf's eyes immediately shot open to its maximum extent and slid the covers away from the face. Tremors began to come on accompanied by flashes of cold sweats. Wolf looked towards the door and saw a familiar silhouette walk in and went straight for the bright fluorescent lights.

Wolf covered his eyes with his hand for several seconds.

"It's me," a more familiar voice sounded. After acclimating to the brightness, there he was, standing, hands behind his back with his tail wagging idly.

Wolf stared at him in awe and despair…

"So… I uhm…" Jonathan slowly turned his head to the two hospital personnel, glaring at them. "Do you two mind?"

"Oh! Sorry about that…" The doctor spoke before they left and closed the door, consuming the two in deadly silence.

"Well…" Jonathan began. "Nice seeing you."

There wasn't a reply from Wolf, he was about to hide under the covers again, having the urge to sob.

"What has it been… 3 or 4 years?" Jonathan yawned, and as he did, Wolf began to realize the changes in him, including the whiskers, the different hairstyle, and most importantly, his height. "Man, what a night that was, yeah?"

Wolf put his head down.

"So tell me 'bout it Wolf… What's bothering you last night?"

"I… don't know…" Wolf croaked.

"Oh, sure you do… There's no need to worry. I am not Leon."

"I just don't know, okay! Maybe a bit later." He raised his voice.

"Wow, haven't heard you that angry in a while." Jonathan chuckled.

"I had way too much to drink… I honestly don't remember. All I remembered is seeing some flashbacks, but it's like when you wake from a dream and you can only remember certain elements of it."

"How much do you remember?"

"I just remember hanging out in Sargasso… right now…"

"And what else?"

"Just… stop pressuring me. I can't think." Wolf growled.

"Right, fine. I'll give it time."

"Something else that I remember was Fox being there and disappearing…"

"Mmhmm."

"I guess the Star Fox and Star Wolf strife is back in business…"

"Uh… about that—"

"None of your business!"

"Yikes, feisty Wolf." Jonathan remarked.

Wolf sat up and shook his head, now that the pain has lessened.

"How do you feel?" Jonathan asked.

"Kind of weak… head throbs… the usual hangover stuff."

"Well they give those hangover meds, Wolf. Should be receding within the next hour or so…"

Wolf exhaled softly and shook his head before staring at Jonathan straight in his yellow irises. "Come over," Wolf made the respective gesture with his hands.

Jonathan happily obliged as he stepped into his personal space. Wolf raised his hand and caressed the spot on his face where he clawed him. He unfurled his fur, finding the sutures along the three scratch marks. He slowly shook his head.

"I don't know what to say… I… I feel like a monster doing this…"

"Well, you are pretty lucky I am here, Wolf," Jonathan smiled and looked around. Wolf, on the other hand, instantly recognized that smile, which elicited the memories of him making the same innocent face years ago, even back when he was a puppy. "Has the cops… or Leon come in here yet?"

"No," Wolf shook his head.

"That's good, because you don't need to worry about that anymore, Wolf."

"Wait, how?"

"Fox visited me. We agreed to call off any police investigation and Fox actually did it."

"Fox?" Wolf felt the regret washing over again. "Did you pay him anything?"

"No. He's okay and all happy though. No need to worry about him."

"But…" Wolf sighed. "We were hanging out and such… and then this happened."

Jonathan realized that it was enough.

"Wolf… It's all over now. _I am_ handling this. No one is going to arrest you. No one is going to tyrannize you. It's you and me now. You're not going to be locked up in space again. You're going to spend your time with your loved ones…"

Wolf sniffed, but then he sternly stood up and faced him.

"Why are you calling me Wolf?" Wolf added a gruff to his voice. "You're supposed to call me dad! You are my son!"

Jonathan kept silent as he relished the words from him.

"I—I…" Wolf stopped speaking and realized the warmth within him has grown exponentially, and upon standing, he was fazed that his son was almost the same height as him. A single teardrop freed from his eye, crawling down the face.

"Well, Dad?"

"Yes, pup?"

Jonathan reached out his hand. "Take my hand, we start things anew… shall we?"

Wolf reached out and caressed it lightly before grasping it with full force, fueling it with raw emotion.

Jonathan said softly as Wolf bolted up and charged at him, pulling Jonathan into him and embracing him with full force. Wolf's head rested on Jonathan's shoulder sniffing and letting out the warm and sweet tears that dripped onto his's tee; The soft feel of his fur, his soft voice, everything that's related was all he needed, and he got it all back.

"Welcome back, papa… I've been longing to see you…" Jonathan gently patted the sobbing Wolf's back.

"Is there anyone… around?" Wolf released the embrace and grabbed some tissues from the nightstand.

"Nope. Just you and me."

 _Life isn't going to suck so hard anymore._

* * *

Out in the empty hallway, Fox sat on the bench with his head down, snoring lightly.

The door next to him opened.

"So how did you get your hair like this?" Jonathan asked.

"I found a rubber band and found out my hair is long enough." Wolf nudged his ponytail. "I couldn't find any styling gel so I tried my best."

"And here's the man of the hour… who is… asleep…" Jonathan remarked as the both eyed on Fox with his head drooping and snoring very quietly.

"How should we wake him up?" Wolf asked.

"I don't know. **You're** the one who always wake me up for school with your ridiculous methods!"

Wolf thought for a while before sneaking in front of Fox and made a deafening clap with his hands. Fox immediately jumped.

"When did you wake up this morning?" Jonathan asked. Fox looked up, seeing double both brimming with enthusiasm.

"5 am…" Fox yawned and stretched.

"Well, maybe you should go home and get some rest, because our job is done here, Fox." Jonathan replied. "Thanks again for the help," Jonathan reached out his right hand and Fox stood up, lightly grasped it and moved it up and down.

"What kinda handshake was that? Come on Fox… Do you shake General Pepper's hand like that?"

Fox shook his head.

"Let's try that again." The two then exchanged a firmer handshake as Wolf reverently observed.

Then without any warning, he grabbed Fox by the torso and pulled him to his body and wrapping his arms around. "Thank you, Fox." Wolf thanked.

Fox initially did not have a clue about what went on, but as he began to understand, there were no motivations to pull away from Wolf, as he did feel something that was intangible for the longest time.

 _Comfort._

Eventually, Wolf released him.

"See you around, Fox," Jonathan parted as the two began to walk down the corridor, side by side, tails swishing with the pace.

Fox's breathing became faster as he stared at the two leaving to the elevator.

"Wait up!"

* * *

 **Supplemental Information**

\- Well here you go. That's the end of part one. There's much more to the story though, much more good


End file.
